Birmingham’s Crescent Theatre launches its autumn season on September 14th with the Birmingham première of the brilliant comedy Bleak Expectations (as heard on BBC Radio 4).
Who is Charles Dickens? How was he moulded by the times he lived in? And what can his stories tell us about his life?
All these questions and more will definitely NOT be answered by Bleak Expectations, a gloriously stupid Dickensian comic romp. “This show has everything,” says director James David Knapp. “Okay, not everything. That would be impossible. But it’s got dastardly villains, preposterous names, pulse-quickening romances, heart-rending death scenes and an absolute ton of silliness.’
Written by Mark Evans, Bleak Expectations started life as an award-winning BBC Radio 4 series before being adapted into a play for the Watermill Theatre in Newbury. After an acclaimed run in the West End, the show now comes to Birmingham for the very first time to open the Crescent’s 2024/25 season.
The story follows Pip Bin (Andrew Elkington), an incurable romantic and would-be hero, who’s joined by his sisters Pippa (Katie Goldhawk) and Poppy (Chloe Potter) and best buddy Harry Biscuit (Damien Dickens) as they try to escape the evil clutches of Mr. Gently Benevolent (Jack Kirby).
With some of the actors playing numerous roles – including Mark Shaun Walsh as ALL FOUR Hardthrasher siblings – the pace is fast and the laughs come just as quickly. And the director happily admits he did zero research for any of it.
“I just did what everyone does when they direct a play, surely?” explains Knapp. “Whether it’s one of the great American plays like All My Sons or Shakespeare’s King Lear, you just go into Waterstones and get the Cliffs Notes, don’t you? I haven’t read the play and I certainly haven’t read any of Dickens’ books.” There’s a tongue firmly in cheek there!
So anyone looking for slavish adherence to the works of Dickens will watch in horror as the great works of a major English author are violated in front of their eyes. If somehow Dickens could be brought back to life and his reanimated corpse sat in the audience, what does Knapp think the famed Victorian author would make of it?
“He’d be very angry,” admits Knapp with a frown. “I think I would, wouldn’t you? If somebody took my life’s work and screwed it up? We’re bad people, really. It’s extremely immoral.”
Immoral it may be, but that doesn’t make it any less funny and, alongside the many laughs, audiences will be sure to learn something too – such as how useful swans are in a fight and why France is the sneakiest of all the countries.
So join us at The Crescent from September 14th for what’s sure to be a right ‘harumble’ of an evening with this wonderfully inventive and hilarious piece of theatre.
To book tickets, visit www.crescent-theatre.co.uk or call 0121 643 5858 …