NICHOLAS NICKLEBY: Edgar (adapted).
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (2 Parts)
adapted by David Edgar from Charles Dickens.
Gielgud Theatre To 25 January 2008.
Wed-Sun.
PartI Wed 2pm, Thu 7pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 1.30pm.
Part II Wed 7pm, Fri 7pm, Sat 7pm, Sun 6.30pm.
Runs: Part 1 3hr One interval.
Part 2 3hr 20min Two intervals.
TICKETS: 0870 950 0915.
www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk (£1.50 per ticket booking fee by 'phone or online).
Review: Alan Geary: 19/20 November 2007 at Theatre Royal Nottingham.
Most things are missable. This isn’t.
This is theatrical entertainment of the highest standard. It isn’t a take on the novel; it is Dickens, leaping out of the page.
A large cast play a host of characters. Daniel Weyman, an actor with a guileless Victorian face, makes Nicholas a straight man moving through a world of larger than life eccentrics and grotesques - if you remember it, think Kenneth Horne in Round the Horne. There’s Newman Noggs (Richard Bremmer) with those horribly cracking bones in his long fingers; he stands exactly like a Phiz illustration. There’s Miss Knag (Tricia Kelly) repeating the last word of everything her mistress says. There’s the monstrous Wackford Squeers (Pip Donaghy).
It being Dickens, there’s sentimentality aplenty, most notably in the character of Smike (David Dawson) and his devotion to Nicholas. And there’s the fallen middle class theme - the Nicklebys, the Mantalinis and the Brays.
Part One ends with a hilariously sent up production of Romeo and Juliet - Jonathan Coy and Veronica Roberts are perfect as the ham actor-manager and his wife, Mr and Mrs Crummles. It’s a wrench when we have to say good-bye, in a splendid musical number, to the strolling players and to the vivacious, smoky-voiced Miss Snevellicci, the most delightful of the three love interest characters played by Zoe Waites - by comparison Madeline’s a shade wet.
Kate Nickleby (Hannah Yelland) isn’t wet; she gets more assertive and less passive as the depravity and the sexual exploitation of women, one of the dark elements of the play, becomes more evident. Some of the men involved here are more like dissolute Regency fops than Victorians - a reminder that the novel is very early Victorian.
Another dark element is symbolised when, amidst the final rejoicing, an abandoned child is lying in the snow; this is a comedy for sure, but it’s an angry one. And, because Nicholas shares Dickens’ indignation at “the state of England”, he’s the moral centre of the play. All the villains get a (melo)dramatic comeuppance. David Yelland, as scheming Uncle Ralph, with his coldly smooth and logical voice and bearing, is outstanding at this point.
A single town set is used throughout the two-part show but, given some ingenious scene changing, it’s amazingly adaptable.
A trifling criticism. Each actor except Weyman takes on at least two roles, which, generally, is not a problem. But by the time David Dawson (Smike) and Richard Bremmer (Newman Noggs) get to play, respectively, Croupier and Gambler, they’ve become so identified with their main roles that it doesn’t work. Criticism over.
Most things are missable; Nicholas Nickleby isn’t.
Nicholas: Daniel Weyman.
Kate/Jennings/Miss Bravassa: Hannah Yelland.
Mrs Nickleby/Coates/Mrs Curdle/Mrs Snevellicci: Abigail McKern.
Ralph/Gambling House Proprietor: David Yelland.
Sir Matthew Pupker/Mr Snawley/Mr Lenville/Opera Singer: Peter Moreton.
Newman Noggs/Handsaw: Richard Bremmer.
Miss la Greevy/Peg Sliderskew: Alison Fiske.
Hannah/Tilda Price/a Daughter/Miss Belvawney/Opera Singer: Emma Manton.
William/Jackson/Mr Wagstaff/Mr Pluck/Charles Cheeryble/Police Officer: Wayne Cater.
Wackford Squeers/Sir Mulberry Hawk: Pip Donaghy.
Snawley Senior/Master P Crummles/Mr Pyke: Matthew Spencer.
Snawley Junior/Master Crummles: Rob Kendrick.
Belling/Mr Bane/Mr Tix/Alphonse/Wilbur/Angry Fellow/Messenger: Christopher Logan.
Smike/Croupier: David Dawson.
Mrs Squeers/a Rich Lady/Mrs Crummles/Mrs Snawley: Veronica Roberts.
Fanny Squeers/Miss Snevellicci/Madeline Bray: Zoe Waites.
Young Wackford/Mr Pailey/Ned Cheeryble: David Nellist.
Phib/Mobbs/ Lord’s Fiancée/The Infant Phenomenon/Opera Singer/Young Woman: Phillippa Stanton.
Cobbey/Brooker/Mr Mantalini/Mr Folair/Colonel Chowser/Minister: Simon Roberts.
Bolder/Mrs Lenville/Wanda: Roses Urquart.
Graymarsh/Mr Scaley/Mr Snobb/Mr Wititterley/Frank Cheeryble: Philip Battley.
Peters/Miss Ledrook: Sarah Lawrie.
Sprouter/Miss Knag/Mrs Grudden: Tricia Kelly.
John Browdie/Mr Hetherington/Mr Curdle/Lord Frederick Verisopht/Police Officer: Bob Barrett.
Madame Mantalini/Mrs Wititterly: Jane Bertish.
An Old Lord/Landlord/Mr Fluggers/Mr Snevellicci/Walter/Tim Linkinwater/Walter Bray: Brian Poyser.
Crummles/Arthur Gride: Jonathan Coy.
Directors: Jonathan Church, Philip Franks.
Designer: Simon Higlett.
Lighting: Mark Jonathan.
Sound: Matt McKenzie.
Orchestrations and Additional Music: Matthew Scott.
Musical Director: Paul Frankish.
Movement: Shona Morris.
2007-11-23 08:22:07