“I stole her heart away and put ice in its place. What have I done?” wails Lady Haversham, moments before her rotting wedding dress catches fire and she suffers fatal injuries.
This moment of pain and horror is the climax of director Louise Hill’s brilliant production of Great Expectations in Merton Arts Space.
Performed in the round by a small ensemble cast, with only a handful of props and some symbolic pieces of set, Dicken’s great novel is pared back to its essentials. What emerges is a story about the emotional abuse of children, and whether the heart can recover from it or is doomed to continue the cycle of abuse.
Tom Chapman as Pip and Derek Howard as Magwitch. Photo credit: Jack Ladenburg
Our hero is Pip [Tom Chapman], a blacksmith’s apprentice whom Miss Havisham [Carmen Rodriguez] teaches to be dissatisfied with his lot.
Faithful to the book, Chapman portrays young Pip as impulsive and impressionable. As Miss Havisham mocks his coarse clothes and dangles a beautiful girl in front him, Pip learns to despise his upbringing and yearn to be a gentleman.
Rhiannon Neads as Estella and Carmen Rodriguez as Miss Havisham. Photo credit: Jack Ladenburg.
Opposite him is the adopted girl Estella [Rhiannon Neads], whom Miss Havisham has taught to be as cold and unattainable as a star. Around this trio rotate an extremely talented ensemble who take on the other characters with immaculate attention to accent and manner, and who act as a chorus.
Hannah Boyde shines in the first half as the irascible Mrs Joe Gargery, Pip’s older sister. Anthony Glennon, as the warm-hearted, tongue-tied blacksmith Joe Gargery, provides an ideal foil to Pip as he starts to put on social airs. Derek Howard is a tour de force as Jaggers, the disdainful lawyer who monitors Pip through his course of dissipation.
Rhiannon Neads as Estella and Tom Chapman as Pip. Photo credit: Jack Ladenburg.
The job of distilling a 500 page novel into a two hour show has made the scenes brief and impressionistic. The pace is relentless: as events accelerate, the chorus of voices takes on something of the rhythmic, poetic quality of Under Milk Wood, or of the famous RSC Nicholas Nickleby.
Perhaps to simplify the action, Theresa Heskin’s excellent adaptation largely ignores the Compeyson plot. So straight after the Sunday matinee it was a treat to watch the youngsters of Cricket Green Youth Theatre perform their improvisation on how Miss Havisham became the twisted, vengeful monster Dickens portrays. There is strong talent for the future there.
Tom Chapman as Pip and Derek Howard as Magwitch. Photo credit: Jack Ladenburg
In a second community involvement with the production, the designers were Anna Kezia Williams and Ziyue Gong, both students at Wimbledon College of Art.
It was a treat to witness such accomplished and professional theatre in a community venue. It is Hill’s outgoing production after two and a half years at Attic Theatre Company and if Great Expectations is anything to go by she will be much missed. Her replacement has yet to be announced.
Reserve your seats now on attictheatrecompany.com, 020 8640 6800, or in person at Wimbledon library.
By our Arts Blogger, Jenny Booth
Follow: @culturevult
Visit: mediastarsite.wordpress.com
About The Author
Jenny Booth
Jenny was a news journalist for The Times. An ex-teacher, mum, gardener and art lover, there’s nothing she doesn’t know about the local culture scene…