PICKWICK. Basingstoke to 5 January.

Basingstoke

PICKWICK
by Wolf Mankowitz, Leslie Bricusse, Cyril Ornadel

Haymarket Theatre To 5 January 2002
Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS 01256 465566
Review Timothy Ramsden 1 January

Basingstoke happily proves Dickens in December doesn't have to be that old familiar Carol.What do you do with a minor musical? Give it a minor production. Though Alasdair Ramsay's sparkling revival is minor only in scale. Actors double onstage as the band and a two-tier slatted background with a couple of portable staircases does for the set. Anyone who's not a character in the scene becomes an auto-chorus member.

When your means are limited you have to be clever; wit is the evening's hallmark. Actors change role with profligate ease, making a virtue of the moment when David Shimwell's pettifogging lawyer is needed on stage alongside his Alfred Jingle. Upstage slats open to spill out a forest of documents for the trial scene, then to reveal a crowd of witnesses.

Fast-paced action keeps a Christmas audience happily on its toes. Occasional moments might be given more space, yet both the swift-moving action and Cyril Ornadel's score – stronger on rhythmic catchiness and harmonic shifts than melodic richness – benefit from the express handling.

Though Steve Elias's Pickwick beams benevolence – and sports a fine tenor – there's a suitable darkness to Stuart Nunn's set. Despite its popular set-piece chapters, a fair amount of Dickens' novel takes place in court or prison. Here, the trial offers a gloriously sustained set-piece speech of specious lawyer's theatricality from Stephen Watts' Sergeant Buzfuz.

Shimwell's Alfred Jingle's clearly a conman from the start. Though there's a degree of vocal inflexibility, this lank figure is, every extensive inch, a swindler and seducer. Pickwick's companions are all well-cast; it's a pity the show couldn't give them more scope.

It all zings pleasantly along. Ramsay clearly has the measure of the piece – its shortcomings as well as the virtues he can exploit. Pickwick's election address 'If I Ruled the World' has the raw quality of personal idealism instead of being a sentimental manifesto when accompanied by a brass quartet of street musicians rather than souped-up strings. The result's as corny as Christmas yet fresh as the New Year and, after last year's Jungle Book, a sign of the high standards the Haymarket's artistic director can achieve with such family shows.

Samuel Pickwick: Steve Elias
Augustus Snodgrass: Christopher Dickins
Tracy Tupman: Michael Gunney
Nathaniel Winkle: Damian Jones
Sam Weller: Richard Emerson
Mr Wardle: Mike Lloyd
Isabella Wardle: Jules Davison
Emily Wardle: Jenni Winter
Rachel Wardle: Lesley McClymont
Mrs Bardell: Polly Highton
Mr Jingle: David Shimwell
Sergeant Buzfuz: Stephen Watts
Georgina Bardell: Nicole Perks/Alice Guyatt
Joe: Sara Gunter/Ian Pink

Director: Alasdair Ramsay
Designer: Stuart Nunn
Lighting: Simon Hutchings
Musical Director: Robert Purvis
Choreographer: Lynne Page

2002-02-03 13:16:25