Hard Times

Published Wednesday 29 October 2008 at 12:10 by Liz Arratoon

Icon Theatre combines puppetry, Angeline Ferguson’s effective film projection and original music by Christopher Warner with some fine acting and physical theatre to portray Dickens’ classic novel.

As bleak as anything found in a modern day soap, with addiction, loveless marriage, a frame-up and death as a few of the themes, it could just as easily been titled Unhappy Times. But it is told in the most inventive and absorbing manner.

With just three actors - Tom Peters, Raewyn Lippert and James Hyland - Icon has achieved something remarkable. Although they all take on a minimum of three roles - making each distinct in manner and voice - it is perhaps Peters whose transition between pompous Gradgrind, dissolute Tom and hapless Stephen Blackpool, is the most convincing.

But Lippert is convincing as Louisa and makes a rather gorgeous circus acrobat, while Hyland is persuasive as the oily Harthouse but slightly over-cooks Bounderby’s bluster.

A few simple props easily suggest the changing scenes, one of the most effective being the opening sequence in a Victorian circus, replete with human cannonball, horses, sequins and strongman. But director Nancy Hirst, the cast and designer Lucille Acevedo-Jones have brought the whole sorry story to life with some lovely touches, giving it an almost filmic quality. This is most evident in the cleverly choreographed depiction of Tom’s heavy gambling losses, which has the other-worldliness of a dream sequence.

With many people currently experiencing their own hard times, the audience was not packed, but this is a theatrical treat and well worth a slide into the red.