The Barn at Blackbird Leys was a new venue to me, but with its rustic legacy and up-to-date facilities, it made a perfect setting for Oxfordshire Theatre Company’s new production, Dancing In My Dreams, in which Karen Simpson with musical director Andrew Dodge, writer Neil Duffield and designer Laura McEwan have brought to life a poignant chapter in our history.

The story is set during the mass evacuation of city children during the Second World War. Kathleen is an illegitimate Irish Catholic girl billeted with the unwilling Freda and her family. Freda is strict chapel and her own disappointments in life are taken out on the homesick evacuee. The trials of the girl’s situation struck a chord with the audience, especially those of an age to remember such events. I have rarely heard such lively discussions of a show in an interval. Powerful performances had a lot to do with this. Lauren Cocoracchio as Kathleen was funny and moving, counterbalanced by Debbie Leigh-Simmons’s sharply realised Freda. Fine portrayals by Jonathan Metcalf as the henpecked Jack, Lois Unwin (pictured with Lauren) as traumatised orphan Monica, and Katrina Gibson as the sneaky Pamela were also vital to the success of this show. Dancing In My Dreams, though meaty, is not a gloomy piece as Kathleen finds her escape in her dream-world of Hollywood musicals, Fred and Ginger, and Irving Berlin – evocated a cappella by the cast of five.

This is fine musical theatre with the ensemble slipping easily from emotional scenes to elegant song and dance.

The show is visiting Faringdon Corn Exchange (June 27), Witney Corn Exchange (June 30 and July 1), St Andrew’s Primary School, Headington (2), Mollington Village Hall (3), Southmoor Village Hall (4), Great Shefford Primary School (5), Wantage Civic Hall (7 and 8), SS Mary and John School Meadow Lane (9), Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot (10), and Steeple Aston Village Hall (11).