Charles Dickens is a national treasure and his characters and novels have become part of the British psyche. His burning sense of injustice at the treatment of the poor in Victorian London gave his fertile literary imagination a powerful undertow of emotion.
This show taps into our love of all things Dickensian in the manner of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, creating generous parodies of a number of Dickens’ most famous novels. Sideburns are much in evidence. With live music in a range of styles, from country and Western to rock, the five performers create a highly pleasing cocktail of visual jokes, comedy mugging and witty one liners.
They don’t quite cover all 61 books and 2,324 characters, spending a little too long on some of the novels, although their energy never flags. Kicking off with Oliver Twist, they offer snatches of the musical version until an irate Dickens comes onstage to complain about the comic treatment of his dark and gloomy indictment of Victorian violence towards children. The serious note is fleeting, though, and that’s as it should be.
On to David Copperfield, a hilarious send-up of this precursor to Great Expectations, starting with the eponymous hero in the blacking factory. The scenes between David and Barkis, of ‘Barkis is willing’ fame, are comic gems. Even the less successful jokes are carried off with aplomb by performers who clearly enjoy their job. They also have great voices, doing a fine line in five-part harmonies.
Brief glimpses of Bleak House and Great Expectations are followed by a wonderfully witty take-off of A Christmas Carol, with skateboarding ghosts and Tiny Tim on electric guitar. The odd thing is that the power of Dickens’ emotional affinity with his characters shines through, despite the parody, and Scrooge’s conversion still brings a lump to the throat.
The only criticism is that the production doesn’t cover some of the other books. It would have been good to see more of Great Expectations or something of The Old Curiosity Shop. But the fact that it leaves you wanting more can only be a good sign.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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