THE MYSTERY OF CHARLES DICKENS. To 31 March.

London

THE MYSTERY OF CHARLES DICKENS
by Peter Ackroyd

Albery Theatre To 31 March 2002
To 17 March: Thurs-Sat 7.30 + Thurs, Sat, Sun 3pm
19-31 March: Tues-Sat 7.30 + Thurs, Sat, Sun 3pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS 020 7369 1740
Review Timothy Ramsden 10 March

Who the dickens was England's most famous novelist? It turns out the question's not easy to answer.When a one-man show fills a West End theatre for two hours, the one man has to be good. Simon Callow's more: he's tailor-made casting for Victorian England's most popular and theatrical novelist. Dickens successfully wrote, directed or performed in amateur theatricals throughout his life. Then he started on the exhausting national tours of dramatic readings from his novels, which packed out theatres and contributed to his death.

Peter Ackroyd's biography of the novelist runs to Dickensian proportions. His play's governing idea is that Dickens, behind his fame, is a contradictory character, unable to relate easily to women and perpetually haunted by childhood poverty. The first act ends with Dickens' crying for help; the second concludes with his reference to the 'brief sunshine' of life.

Ackroyd identifies a sense of loss originating with the sudden death, aged 17, of Dickens' sister-in-law Mary Hogarth. However it began, Callow gives terrifying force to the feeling as all colour and energy drain from his voice in Oliver Twist's lonely cries.

Ackroyd's ideas aren't all new – John Carey presented a complex Dickens in his book The Violent Effigy, including the account, given here, of Dickens climbing through sparks and ashes to look into the mouth of an active volcano. But Callow's embodiment gives vivid force to the life as expressed in the works. There's surprising modernity in the physically repulsive sight of Mrs Haversham's shrunken figure sitting in her once-fitting, now faded wedding dress.

Dickens' visual sense is emphasised in the multi-angled picture frames of Christopher Woods' set, while Nick Richings' lighting changes match what Dickens called his 'streaky bacon' mix of dark and comic material.

There's only one actor, but a whole tribe of Dickensian characters, from the comically-observed cheapjack trader to Sidney Carton's noble death.. Callow brings them to teeming life with the colourful style of a Victorian actor-manager, offset by lighter modern tones in the passages of Ackroydian comment. In the end, the mystery of Charles Dickens may be no nearer solution than that of the unfinished Edwin Drood, but no-one interested in first-rate acting would want to miss out on Callow's search-party.

Charles Dickens: Simon Callow

Director: Patrick Garland
Designer: Christopher Woods
Lighting: Nick Richings

2002-03-11 01:37:41