Following on from one successful book adaption, the new management at the Old Vic have commissioned another, somewhat more famous in the English language, and after the success of Les Liasones Dangereuses, the audience in the Main House (Theatre Royal) were looking forward to something good this time round. In fact one might say they had great expectations of what was to come...
The novel is, of course, by Charles Dickens, and this play is based on it, though inevitably the sheer length of the book, quite apart from the differing strengths of stage and prose, mean that any such play would never stand a chance of conveying everything in the book (the most obvious such recent example being the silver screen adaptions of Lord Of The Rings). The adapter, David Farr, has recognised this and chosen instead (sensibly) to go simply for a dramatic piece as a play in its own right. The result is quite surprising.

The story concerns Pip, a young orphaned boy who, through good fortune and the generosity of an anonymous benefactor, moves "up in the world" from his place as an apprentice under his adoptive father, a village blacksmith, to be a gentleman in London living on the princely annual allowance of £500 (!) a year. What is clear almost from the start is that we are seeing the action through Pip's eyes, as he strgggles to make sense of what is happening all around him. The final denoument is nicely cyclical, echoing back to the beginning of Pip's story, the conclusion leaves sufficiently open possibilities for the audience to be left imagining what happens next...

The set and lighting are exemplary. I've never seen the Theatre Royal stage thrown so open, the wings all but disposed of, the stage wreathed in smoke from beginning to end, lighting changes made all the more powerful by the sense of darkness and menace created by the black walls of the space, and some truly superb props (the dining table used near the start of the piece pulls of the superb trick of having a part at the Old Vic whilst looking like the kind of prop that might have been pinched from a touring musical at the Hippodrome).

On his way through life Pip meets a series of characters (many of whom are, through necessity to fit the entire piece in before Christmas, cut from the play), including Magwitch, a felon on the run, the lawyer in charge of Pip's mystery befactor's affairs, Jaggers, the beautiful Estella, for whom Pip's feelings never dim throughout the play, and the embittered Miss Haversham, jilted on her wedding day, and who has remained in her bridal dress, her house boarded up and frozen in time, ever since. Jenny Quayle does superbly as the latter, whilst Most Amusing Performance award goes to Adrian Schiller for Jaggers (and Pumblechook), and Aidan McArdle as the central character is the binding for the rest of the piece and cast to work from. The cast as a whole apart from these three are very good, a few scenes in particular involving choreographed movement to music showing Pip's upward progress in society are wonderfully entertaining.

As a whole, the piece is moving, compelling and exciting. It even ends at just the right point, the audience having had time to sympathise with Pip whilst not being allowed to totally forget his weaknesses as a man. As has been hinted, it can't hint at the depths of meaning and story-telling in the book, but viewed as theatre in its own right, Great Expectations is sublime.

The Tick List:

Story 


Set


Lighting


Costume 


Cast


Overall

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