Blast

The Victorian themed attraction employs a wide variety of performers to keep visitors entertained as they explore the life and works of classic author Charles Dickens.

A popular place to work

Competition to join the company was fierce, with candidates having to attend several auditions to make the final cut. The audition workshops required potential performers to try their hand at role playing and improvisation.

For Claire Bradley, 23, the appeal to audition for a place at Dickens World was the novelist himself. “I’ve always loved Dickens’ novels and as soon as I’d heard they were creating a place like this I applied straight away.”

Tony Parnell, a 19 year old actor, says the experience of auditioning was ‘scary.’

“We were asked to think of a scenario to think of, such as a toilet overflowing, and then deal with it in a Victorian way!”

Jade Rose, 22, won her place amongst the cast in a slightly different way;

“I started up in the catering department and I got into the habit of coming down into the courtyard and wandering around.

“One day someone said ‘Jade! We need a Mr Brownlow!’ and I said ‘I’ll do it!’ It just sort of organically happened there. Now I do catering and acting. Even when I’m upstairs in catering and A Tale of Two Cities is being performed I’ll shout ‘Viva la Revolution!’”

Old and new characters

The performers remain in character for most of the day, except on assumes, on their lunch breaks. The majority of these characters are original, and created by the actors themselves.

Jade plays two characters of her own creation, Lucy and Peter Buckler. “The ethos with a lot of the characters was people that Dickens might have met and inspired his characters.”

Toni Claire Miller, whose original character is a young Victorian girl named Flo believes that featuring original creations alongside Dickens’ characters is beneficial to the performers.

“We decided when we first opened that because everybody knows Dickens’ characters and loves them, that it would be easier to not to be one of his characters. It’s a lot of homework! Now we’ve been open for quite a while now, people have taken on the challenge of researching the characters and performing as them.

“I like being Flo because I can make her who I want her to be. She can have six different stories and nobody would know any different. Nancy only has the one story.”

A team effort

So is it difficult working with older, more experienced actors? Surprisingly the answer is no, Tony Parnell says.

“We’ve all got our characters, we’re all working towards the same goal and we all get on well as a team. Although some of us have more experience than others we appreciate that and every person feels a part of the team.”

John Cox, 19, moved from Essex to perform as the infamous Artful Dodger from Dickens’ novel Oliver. He describes being ‘thrown in’ on arrival.

“Everyone else was older than me when I first arrived and they already knew what they were doing, but everyone helped out by telling me what to do and giving me little pointers.”

John intends to continue his career by performing at other established tourist attractions in the future,

“I would like to move onto somewhere like The London Dungeons” He says.

Professional visitors

Dickens World has also become a useful location for visiting actors. This summer has featured a show entitled ‘The Trial of Fagin’ in the central courtyard of the attraction and in future will hold more modern events such as stand up comedy in its Britannia theatre.

Perhaps most recognisably Dickens World was used as a location for the opening credits of the recent BBC primetime series ‘I’d Do Anything.’ It was also used for musicians, The Hoosiers’ latest music video shoot, ‘Cops and Robbers.’

The attraction is open to visitors all year round.