Expectations high for classic hit
CHARLES Dickens is the voice of Christmas at The Library Theatre this year, with an ambitious new production of his novel, Great Expectations.
It’s an epic story to bring to the stage, following its narrator Pip, a young orphan whose path through life is largely shaped by two childhood experiences which turn out to have far-reaching consequences.
First we see his traumatic encounter with escaped convict Magwitch and meeting the eccentric spinster, Miss Havisham and her beautiful, but spiteful, adopted daughter, Estella.
“Whenever I’ve mentioned to people that we are doing this particular story you see the thrill cross their faces,” says director, Roger Haines.
“It’s a favourite book for so many.
“The difficulty with any adaptation if you are doing it as a play is to try and fit it into two hours. Obviously there will be characters and scenes people will miss but the broad brush strokes of the canvas are there – you will still get the same fantastic, emotional journey.”
The novel has been adapted for the stage by Neil Bartlett, whose adaptation of Oliver Twist was a huge success for the Library theatre in 2005, and has been designed by M.E.N. Theatre Award-winning Michael Pavelka.
Atmosphere is enhanced by images, from gravestones and full moons to uncontrollable flames, projected on to the set from multiple projectors.
Real sense of scale
“It’s a big step forward for us and gives a real sense of scale,” Roger says. “Until now we’ve never worked with multiple layers of projection.”
"We’re not projecting onto the whole stage but onto a single surfaces.
"For me it’s about the skill of the clarity and the precision, for example, there is a scene shaking out a tablecloth and a projection will go onto it, so the actors have to be in a very specific position.”
A waterphone, an unusual musical instrument made from steel and containing a small amount of water, adds to the mood of the play, creating eerie ambient tones as a background to the action.
All actors in the eight-strong cast, with the exception of Leon Williams as Pip, double and treble up in different roles.
It’s Leon’s debut at the Library Theatre, after recently graduating from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in London.
Blackpool-born
Returning to the theatre from last year’s Christmas show, Tom’s Midnight Garden, are Blackpool-born Claire Redcliffe as Estella and Helen Ryan as Miss Havisham. Joining them after nearly 10 years since last working at The Library, is Richard Heap as Magwitch.
And his return to the city has also seen another reunion for the actor with his old school teacher, Jeremy Tambling, now a professor of literature at Manchester University.
“He and I have kept in touch and it’s strange that I’m coming back here to play Dickens when he’s just published a book on Dickens,” says Richard who was taught as a young teenager by Professor Tambling at The Royal Grammar School, in Colchester, Essex.
“He was the man who started me acting really, casting me in the school play when I was 12. I played Queen Elizabeth in Richard III. It was an all-boys school, so some boys always had to play women. I never got to play a male role until I was 16!”
Great Expectations is at The Library Theatre from Friday, November 28 until Saturday, January 17. £8.50 - £16. For tickets call 0161 236 7110.
Published: Thu, 04 December, 2008
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