LITTLE NELL. To 28 July.
Bath
LITTLE NELL
by Simon Gray
Theatre Royal In rep to 28 July 2007
19, 21, 23, 25 July 7.30pm Mat 18, 28 July 2.30pm
Audio-described 18 July
Post-show Talk 19 July
Runs 1hr 25min No interval
TICKETS: 01225 448844
www.theatreroyal.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 14 July
Elegantly static.
Simon Gray’s play claims Charles Dickens had a dog called Quilp; we hear its bark. The malevolent Quilp was foil to innocent Little Nell, whose death-scene in The Old Curiosity Shop was a high-point in the novelist’s acclaimed public readings. But Gray’s title-character isn’t literary, nor is Dickens’ relation to her something he regards as innocent.
For the last 13 years of his life the novelist who defined Victorian women as demure innocents or emotionally-scarred tormentors lived parallel lives, with a wife he couldn’t abide, and an actress 28-years younger than him, with whom he was besotted.
There’s a sticky Victorianism, Dickens at his most mawkish, in this 45-year old man kissing a 17-year old on the forehead in an avuncular (dis)guise. And a grotesque sense of pubic substitute as he invites teenage Nelly Tiernan to bite and pull his beard.
Here, their lives together are episodes between the uncovering of the relationship in post-World War I England, where Nelly’s son visits Dickens’ to discover the truth.
Two half-plays result, each confined by its sibling (there’s a radio version which could work far better). On a stage only half used at any time, with Tim Pigott-Smith’s nervous, ever-mobile Robinson and Barry Stanton’s calmer Henry frozen in near-dark during the Victorian scenes, the lawyer’s study mixed awkwardly with the trees of the Charles and Nelly scenes, the impact is awkward and muffled.
That extends to the male acting, whether of briefly-seen characters: Edward Bennett as the self-abasing schoolteacher Nelly eventually married, and Tony Haygarth’s bit-part clergyman, or the leading trio of Pigott-Smith, Stanton and Michael Pennington’s Dickens, each seeking to invest their character with a physical presence the writing hardly justifies.
Most interesting is Nelly, though the play doesn’t focus this enough. Loo Brealey does, though, showing the change from Dickensian child to independent woman, with her sense of injury at being sidelined, something Gray aptly concentrates on a railway accident where the novelist rescued other passengers, ignoring his ‘other woman’ in public.
The play about Nell remains to be written. If it is, Brealey must be up for the part.
Sir Henry Dickens: Barry Stanton
Geoffrey Robinson: Tim Pigott-Smith
Charles Dickens: Michael Pennington
Nelly Tiernan: Loo Brealey
Jane: Cressida Trew
George Wharton Robinson: Edward Bennett
Rev Benham: Tony Haygarth
Director: Peter Hall
Designer: Simon Higlett
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Sound: Gregory Clarke
Musical Director: Mick Sands
Costume: Christopher Woods
Assistant director: Tom Littler
Literary footnote Though it’s hardly relevant to Gray’s play, in an age when chain-bookstores are gobbling up independent bookshops it’s good to see the trend being bucked with the recent opening of Topping & Company (they have another branch at Ely). This independent bookseller, opened only a few weeks, doesn’t go in for discounts. But it has a well-selected stock, many volumes with protective (and removable) glassine wrappers, knowledgeable and helpful staff plus a healthy sprinkling of author-signed new books. This last comes from the plentiful programme of author visits they organise.
Many are at Topping & Co itself, but the largest, Alan Bennett on 25 October 2007, is at The Forum. Tickets £20 (£15 if picked up from the bookshop). The price includes Bennett’s new book The Uncommon Reader (£10.99) and a glass of wine.
Most author sessions are at 7.30pm (the shop’s usual closing-time) and the cost around £5, redeemable against buying a copy of the author’s latest book.
To reach Topping & Company in Bath, walk up Milsom Street, passing Waterstones on your left and the 31 Park & Ride stop on your right.
At the top, turn right. Topping & Company is a shortish way ahead on the right, as the road turns to the left.
Topping & Company, The Paragon. Bath BA1 5LS 01225 428111 www.toppingbooks.co.uk.
2007-07-16 13:26:14