'Great Expectations' at the Arden Theatre

Saying that it’s like the Cliffs Notes version brought to life is meant as praise: So much story is condensed into so little time and space, still capturing the essence of the book and letting go of the cumbersome experience of reading the book. I would highly recommend this as a painless and enjoyable introduction to Dickens.

In the newly configured space of the Arcadia Stage, using minimal props and quick costume changes, the six actors/narrators tell the story of Pip (Josh Carpenter), the orphan who would be a gentleman and almost loses his soul in the process. While Pip’s saga of ambition and love drives the story, it is in the creation of the characters that the cast shines. By switching costumes, accents, and postures, new characters emerge. The cast brings to life Magwitch (Brian McCann), the escaped convict befriended by Pip; Estella (Kate Czajkowski), Pip’s one love; Joe (Lindsay Smiling), Pip’s stepfather; Miss Havisham (Sally Mercer), Pip’s tormentor; and a host of others.

I haven’t seen all the productions of Great Expectations that have been produced over the years, but I went to this one expecting a heavy-handed interpretation á la Masterpiece Theatre, that TV bastion of the classics, and found instead a production that made me laugh in a way I didn’t think possible. The misty gray and subdued colors of most productions are gone, although mist occasionally fills the stage to give a hint of the damp moors where Pip was raised and the fog that enveloped London in those days when coal fires polluted the air. The characters have a lightness to them despite the harshness of their lives and the tragedies that befall them.

A fierce Miss Havisham

While Pip is the main character, any young woman reading Dickens’s Great Expectations cannot but wonder how she might behave if she were to be deserted on her wedding day. Would she, like Miss Havisham, languish in a darkened room in a moldering mansion, wearing her wedding gown, growing cobwebs, and plotting revenge against all men? I remember, I must confess, very little about the rest of the story, but the image of Miss Havisham has lingered with me.

In the Arden production, she came to life. I sympathized with her pain and betrayal while I was horrified by her treatment of Pip and Estella. In Mercer’s capable hands, Miss Havisham wasn’t a pathetic old woman waiting for her demise; she was a vicious, angry woman intent on revenge. Considering that the actress also played a number of other parts during the evening, Mercer’s ability to capture the soul of the fiercely angry woman was remarkable.

Last spring’s production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters at the Arden tried to bring that classic up to date by setting it in a present-day rehearsal space. This production of Great Expectations was truer to the time and place of the original and yet felt completely modern. It is a great way to encounter Dickens and whet one’s appetite for more.

For a review by Steve Cohen, click here.

Above right: Sally Mercer as Miss Havisham. (Photo by Mark Garvin)