An audience with Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is best known as one of our great Victorian story-tellers. However, he was also a very gifted actor, and throughout his adult life was heavily involved in amateur dramatics. This in turn led to his decision to undertake public readings of his works during the latter part of his career, bringing his various characters to life on the stage through the use of different voices and mannerisms.

Sikes and Nancy was the last reading he introduced into his repertoire, taken from ‘Oliver Twist’ and involving the violent murder of Nancy at the hands of Bill Sikes, the housebreaker. It was felt by many that the exertion of rehearsing and performing this particular reading greatly contributed to his untimely death at the relatively early age of fifty-eight.

Doctor Marigold was specifically written by Dickens to be performed as a reading, and was to be the only monologue in his repertoire. It tells of a cheap-jack, a travelling salesman, and his unfortunate marriage and loss of his only daughter, but who finds solace when he adopts a deaf and mute orphan girl, whom he names Sophy, and teaches her to communicate through a unique sign language.

Two contrasting readings. One the most brutal and violent, and the other the most poignant and tearful. Jonathan does full justice to both of these in his dramatised readings.

Doors open at 1pm, performance starts at 1.30pm.

Includes a 15-minute interval