Dickens with a Difference at the Trafalgar Studios

By EJ

The darker side of Christmas always brings out the Dickens in me. Maybe it’s the chill in the air, the dark days, and the low glare of street lamps through deserted parts of London town, but I can always picture his characters lurking in the shadows or hurrying down dark alleys in the cold night air. It’s definitely a possibility that I may have indulged in one two many Christmas drinks when these thoughts creep into my mind, but with the Trafalgar Studios staging ‘Dickens with a difference’ this Christmas, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one that associates the two!

So, Trafalgar Studios bring us the first of the Dickens double bill:

‘Miss Havisham’s Expectations.’

Let me start by saying that Linda Marlowe is a glorious Miss Havisham, gliding ghostly into the space, an old, burnt and torn wedding gown, withered flowers in a forlorn crown upon her white messy hair, and a veil pulled hauntingly over her face. Upon entering the space in this eerie fashion we turn to her, entranced when, she quickly cracks a joke, breaks the fourth wall throws her veil aside: here comes the real Miss Havisham!

There are some lovely parts in this piece that really help us to understand her character as a hurt and tortured woman, rather than the bitter monster she is so often portrayed as, and this was where the strength of the production lay. When she dances with the empty dress of her daughter Estella and encourages the mind play and games her daughter plays with Pip, we are gripped.

Unfortunately, the piece too often goes off on a tangent, tearing us from the real interest: Miss Havisham’s seemingly twisted mind. Too often we are dragged out of the story, lectured about other Dickens characters and bizarrely shown magic tricks; I began to lose the point of the piece. That said, the visual effects conjured by the mirror were often quite brilliant and enchanting.

The indulgent sections of the piece were unfortunate as in the midst of the disjointed writing were some lovely ideas that I think could have really blossomed in the right circumstance.

‘Sikes & Nancy’:

The second bill of the night was ‘Sikes & Nancy’, a one-man story telling episode of the brutal murder of Nancy in Oliver Twist. Now, I love this kind of thing.

The show begins gloomily, with six bare chairs on the black stage and Swanton sat darkly hunched, bleakly lit in the silent space. The narration for the dark episode begins and soon Swanton is transforming into each of the characters in the piece. His Fagin is a delightfully haggard wretch and indeed, as his characters sprang to life in their secret conversions, I couldn’t wait to see what these two shady characters were up to.

Swanton has an incredible physicality, and indeed the perfect voice for terror, but as we met Nancy and the others, the show lost it’s footing. Though Nancy is afraid of Bill and what he might do to her, she is a strong woman. She still disobeys him; it’s her foolish heart and love for him that is her downfall, not her strength of character. In this piece she is reduced to a slight, timid wreck of a woman, even before Bill knows of her betrayal. It’s far more interesting to see Nancy’s strength before Bill kills her, as it drives home the power Bill has over her, and what a vile man he is.

I genuinely love storytelling like this, but I do feel that Swanton could rely more on the clean delivery of Dickens story to let the characters and the ultimate horror shine through, as this piece, and his performance, has the potential to be seriously gripping.

Miss Havisham’s Expectations

Performance Dates Tuesday 9th December 2014 – Saturday 3rd January 2015

Monday to Saturday, 7.45pm

Matinees (variable days), 3pm

Running time 1 hour

Sikes & Nancy

Performance Dates Tuesday 9th December 2014 – Saturday 3rd January 2015

Monday to Saturday, 9.15pmMatinees (variable days), 4.30pm

Running time 1 hour

Trafalgar Studios 2

14 Whitehall London, SW1A 2DY

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