4 days ago
25
The first approach of the festive season can always be marked, in theatreland, by the rearing Christmas spectre of Charles Dickens. Here is something different from Scrooge and his ghosts, though just as bracing a warm-up to the season of goodwill. Three actors perform this zesty bildungsroman about a Victorian boy’s travails through misfortune, adventure – and a formative trip to Yarmouth.
Adapted and directed by Abigail Pickard Price, who was behind last year’sthree-person Pride and Prejudice, this is so much more than a parlour game. Produced by the Guildford Shakespeare Company, it is performed by Luke Barton (from Pride and Prejudice), Louise Beresford and Eddy Payne, and bears the quick-witted theatricality of the old Reduced Shakespeare Company. Like them, it retains the essence of the original, whittled down, with delightful dollops of mischief and invention.
Scene changes are fleet, evoked by a swivel of suitcases, from which props are lifted, but which also gesture at David’s travels into adulthood. Yarmouth, where he meets Emily, Ham and Co, is conjured with waves unwound from the folds of Emily’s turquoise dress. David’s stepfather, Edward Murdstone, is represented by a hat and coat puppet; this facelessness renders him convincingly imposing as he inflicts his violent “firmness” on his stepson.
There are some plot omissions and minor characters missing, while David’s attraction to Emily isn’t given time to take hold emotionally. But it is remarkable how much of Dickens’ densely plotted story and great sprawl of characters three actors manage to juggle, and so charmingly.
David is played by Payne, who has both the bearing of a boy and man. Barton brings excellent physical comedy to his transformations – from the matronly Peggotty to Micawber, Spenlow and more. Beresford is bewitching as she shuttles between David’s “child-wife” Dora to his rakish school-friend Steerforth, among others.
Sometimes they change costumes on stage, sometimes switch between characters by donning different hats. Only on a few occasions does it feel too frenetic. In its comic eccentricity, it is reminiscent of Armando Iannucci’s film. The tragic notes of the story are struck too, in the fates of Emily, Ham and David’s various losses.
Never mind the ghost of Christmas past. David Copperfield brings the Dickens magic here.
