The Titfield Thunderbolt

The Titfield Thunderbolt

Cutwater Productions presents


Tickets �12.50**

* Disabled seating available please call Box Office on 01205 363108

**Prices are inclusive of the 50p per seat Refurbishment Levy

‘The Titfield Thunderbolt’ is the popular stage adaptation of the Ealing comedies classic about the forming of a local railway company.  Expect real sound effects created on stage, railway engines built before your eyes and audience involvement – don’t be frightened, they’re friendly! Innovation is in the DNA of Cutwater, so they love a bit of a mingle, a chat with the audience and a bit of a sideways look at how to present a story.  The best way to adapt a film for the stage is to re-look at the story and how you tell it. This adaptation by Philip Goulding positively invites the cast to go further.  And they are loving it! – so will you.  The moment you realise that you can’t actually get a real railway station, a real engine and carriages and several miles of track on stage is the moment you realise that the world’s your oyster.  Or British Rail sandwich.  Your choice. That’s the point: abandon realism and go for the skies, and fill them with steam and coal smoke, while you’re at it.  Or make the audience fill in the blanks, while you suggest it all with acting, imaginative use of scrap and furniture, and let them see how the sounds are made; doubling of parts means double the laughs - innovative, engaging and invigorating.  Now departing platform one for laughs, loves and the little man against the red tape: the Cutwater express!   All aboard!

Cutwater Productions is a Boston based cooperative of writers, actors and singers, formed in 2003.

This innovative company came into being when a small group of local performers and writers decided to form their own company, outside of the more traditional community theatre company model, providing the start up capital, experience and initial enthusiasm, so becoming ‘sharers’ in the new company.  The sharers direct the cooperative’s activities and assume responsibility. They cast not solely from inside this group, but also love to invite other actors to perform with them, providing a lively pool of talent and experience to work with, most becoming company favourites - firm friends and regular colleagues.

Through the writing team of ‘Broadhurst and Read’, Cutwater delights in devising and writing their own material, adapting classsics and films, and also producing established plays. They have adapted Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’, written a dramatisation of the life and works of Dickens himself, adapted the British 1960s comedy film ‘Ladies Who Do’, toured their own comedies, produced the classic TV drama ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ and the revered stage classic comedy ‘When We Are Married’, as well as the dark, supernatural comedy, ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’.

Each spring, the company go on the road with their Lincolnshire villages tour.  Cutwater firmly believes that theatre is an experience and an activity, not a building.  They are delighted to perform in village halls and canteens, bringing theatre to the villages.  Village hall committees like to use a Cutwater production as a fund raising opportunity.  They pay a set fee per performance, and raise the balance and more by setting their own ticket price, holding a raffle, etc.  The repeat bookings show that village audiences love these evenings while their village hall makes a healthy profit.  Tours are usually so sold out that extra performances often have to be arranged, due to demand.

Village tours are usually productions of a brand new comedy, written for the company by ‘Broadhurst and Read’.  Mick Broadhurst is a Cutwater sharer and company actor, while Pete Read is a Cutwater sharer and stage director. The plays - written with village life in mind - are always popular, attracting praise for relevance and insight, presented with laughs and love.

Cutwater is always open to a commission, having devised and performed a stage celebration of a local Church’s 900th anniversary, as well a series of murder mysteries on behalf of local charities.

This will be the third autumn running that Cutwater has produced a play in Blackfriars’ main auditorium. 2016’s Anthem was a ‘Broadhurst and Read’ commemoration of the Great War generation, while last year’s ‘When We are Married’ speaks for itself, as JB Priestley at his comedic best. 

All in all, Cutwater Productions love to bring you innovative new ways to see old stage and screen friends and new comedies, in the theatre and in the world.   Welcome to our world.


Blackfriars Theatre is run predominately by volunteers. If you would be interested in helping out please speak to our Box Office.

Thank you for your support and understanding. We hope you enjoy the show and encourage others to help Keep Theatre Live in Boston.

Blackfriars undoubtedly plays a very important role as Boston's centre for entertainment and the arts. It is home to two very successful local amateur dramatic and operatic groups, as well as hosting a varied program of professional stage productions.