CityLife

Andersen's English

Andersen’s English
Library Theatre
March 1, 2010

Regular visitors Out Of Joint, the new writing theatre company, are back at the Library, this time with an interesting insight into the private life of Charles Dickens.

Prize-winning novelist and playwright Sebastian Barry – twice nominated for the Booker and winner of the 2008 Costa - investigates the personal secrets of two literary legends in a tale based around the occasion children’s writer Hans Christian Andersen visited Dickens and his family at their home in the Kent marshes in mid-1857.

The Danish writer not only outstayed his welcome but also, because of his limited grasp of English, failed to spot that Dickens’ marriage to Catherine was disintegrating. 

To the outsider, the household seems a portrait of domestic bliss. But in fact Dickens is all along preparing to end 22 years of marriage and the relationship that had produced 10 children. 

The play shows Dickens as a public figure with feet of clay, cruel to his wife and insensitive with his children, highlighting the division between the man and the creative genius.

It’s quite a big play, also involving Dickens’ sister-in-law Georgina, who remains his confident; defiant daughter Kate; actress Ellen Ternan, with whom Dickens had a long-lasting affair and weak son Walter, banished to serve in India.

Out of Joint artistic founder Max Stafford Clark directs a cast that includes Niamh Cusack (Heartbeat, Always And Everyone) as the unfortunate Mrs D; David Rintoul (Dr Finlay) as a look-alike, intolerant, extrovert, domineering Dickens and  - in a very strange piece of colour-blind casting - Danny Sapani as the weaver of romantic fairy tales who missed the reality around him.

It’s a rather eccentric play of eccentric people in a decidedly eccentric production. The super-crowded Victorian drawing room of a set doubles up as the great outdoors and the Crystal Palace as the cast clamber over the furniture and perch on the fireplace. Odd but generally entertaining.

Until March 6, 2010. Library Theatre, St Peter’s Square, Manchester. Wed 7.30; Thurs 3pm, 7.30; Fri 8pm; Sat 3pm, 8pm. Tickets £13 - £15.50. Box office 0161 236 7110 or www.librarytheatre.com.

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