(PROLOGUE) Someone strikes a match - it is Eddie, a labourer on the Bostock farm, who is carrying a sack from which kittens' miaows can be heard.
Cathy, Nan and Charles, Mr. Bostock's children, watch him from a hiding place and, as Eddie exits, they rescue the kittens.
Nan asks who is going to look after them and Charles, echoing the bland sentiments of the Salvation Army woman, says that "Jesus will".
At the Sunday School, Miss Lodge, the teacher, is asked by Cathy what would happen if Jesus came back —could they stop Him being crucified a second time?
Miss Lodge says that people would have to try harder this time to stop that from happening and that they should praise Him and follow Him.
The three children get more food for The Man and laugh about how everyone will want to come to see Jesus once they know that He is in their barn — even THE MAYOR OF BURNLEY!
The villagers are still alarmed about the convict and Dad lectures Cathy once more about not speaking to strangers (OPENING SEQUENCE).
At the Sunday School that evening the children enact out THE NATIVITY to their bored parents, who seem more interested in criticising each other than watching the play.
Cathy, thinking of Charles' kitten, asks the Vicar why it is that Jesus lets some things die before their time.
The other children ask Cathy if they can go and see The Man and, using the distraction caused by DAD'S PARTY PIECE (Ione On A Moor), they quietly slip out.
The Man, realising that he has not got time to escape, locks the door from the inside and gives vent to his emotions (I DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE WAITING TO HEAR).
Raymond leaves, having told Dad that he heard a strange man talking to the children in the barn.
The phone rings — it is the Police Inspector, whom Raymond has also told — and Cathy, on impulse, darts out of the door to warn The Man of his imminent arrest.
Standing outside an opening at the back of the barn Cathy pleads with The Man to leave before it is too late, but he refuses (PLEASE, JESUS ... ).
Suddenly a policeman notices that smoke is pouring out of the barn's roof and raises the alarm (THE FIRE).
The professional premiere of Taylor's Whistle Down the Wind opened at the Union Theatre, London and ran from 28 January to 21 February 2015.
It was directed by the Union's artistic director Sasha Regan and designed by Nik Corrall.
[1] In Winter 2019, Sasha Regan revived her production of Taylor's musical at the new Union Theatre in Southwark.
[2] Whistle Down the Wind on stage largely follows the pattern set by the film and is extremely episodic.
A stone cross war memorial will suggest the village; a table, chairs and perhaps a dresser on an open stage "closed-down" with lighting is more than enough for the kitchen.
The barn was collapsible so that it looked like a skeleton of rafters for the final scene, but there are simpler ways of convincing the audience of the fire — just strike the hay, props and agricultural paraphernalia you might be using as set dressing.
For the big production numbers, which are set in a variety of simultaneous locations, use a lot of cues, bouncing at the appropriate moments from one area to another to define the street, the church, the Sunday school stage etcetera.
The young cast members must act and sing like real children caught up in a story they accept with a natural innocence and faith.
Cathy must establish herself as the leader of the "Disciples" and must be an actress capable of the emotional outpourings at the end of the play.