 | | Great Expectations - review | |
| | Review by Paul Stevens | |
|  | | THIS STORY LAST UPDATED:
17 April 2003 1615 BST
:: Great Expectations
:: Bristol Old Vic Main House
:: to 3 May 2003
:: Box Office - 0117 9877 877 | | Jenny Quayle puts in a splendid performance as the disquieting Miss Havisham | |  | |
| | :: This story | | > Internet links
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| | It's out with the old directors and in with the new at the Bristol Old Vic.
David Farr's engaging new adaptation plays light with the narrative.
It dispenses with Herbert Pocket entirely and creates instead, a highly dramatic, mostly convincing impression of the bleak fancies passing through Pip's subconscious, troubled mind.
It is none the worse for that.
This bold and imaginative, partly metaphorical approach makes much of the novel's inherent melodrama - mists on the marshes, tombstones and ghostly characters figure greatly - to breathe invigorating fresh life into the popular tale.
Bewildered expressions
And, after all, the world needs another TV-style, narrative-driven, verisimilitude-laden adaptation of Dickens like it needs another Iraq war.
The experienced and talented Jenny Quayle puts in a splendid performance as the disquieting Miss Havisham, leading a support cast that performs superbly throughout.
At the centre of the production, however, is the excellent Aidan Mcardle as Pip.
His bewildered expressions and looks of amazement and joy are a delight as he faces stoically the peaks and troughs fate throws his way.Simon Wolfe as the terrifying Magwitch casts a beguiling shadow over the production while Sam Cox brings out wonderfully the inherent pathos - so integral to the Dickens canon - of Joe Gargery.
Boldly-drawn set
Adrian Schiller as the pompous, utterly aloof Jaggers is splendid and brings a wonderful detachment to his scenes involving the bewildered Pip and the touchingly subservient Joe.
A boldly-drawn set by Dick Bird, including a wonderfully imposing and engaging scene with a table that rises some 20ft into the air at its rear, creating an amazing trompe l'oueil effect, adds impressively to what is a finely-tuned, highly engaging production.crisply directed by Gordon Anderson.
The scenes where Pip and his group of toffs stand around boozing ritualistically had the audience laughing uproariously.
And Pip's all-consuming, unrequited passion for Estella is palpable throughout - their scenes together are among the most moving I have seen on the stage for a good while.
For some time, I even considered revising my long-established view that the best approach to Dickens is to read him - lose the wonderfully ironic narrative voice and you lose all, I reasoned.
But Anderson's highly imaginative, psychological approach may make many reconsider that standpoint, which may after all, be no bad thing in an image-laden age where the written word is increasingly forced into a back seat. | |
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