GREAT EXPECTATIONS

adapted by Neil Bartlett from the Novel by charles dickens

Christmas Eve 1812. A strange and terrifying meeting in a churchyard sets in motion a chain of events that will shower a young man with money, break his troubled heart and lead him deep into a labyrinth of deception and discovery. Based solely on the magnificent language in the original novel, Neil Bartlett's adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations is a dark-hearted, twisted fairytale exploring guilt and forgiveness, childhood terrors and hopes, and adult dreams and regrets.

In our production of Bartlett's text, East 15 Acting School's 2017 Christmas show, the acting ensemble became The Crummle's Travelling Players. Using Victorian-era lamplight, luggage and bric-a-brac, the theatrically inventive troup brought a constellation of Dickens’ most extraordinary characters, horses and carriages, Miss Havisham's decaying mansion and a boat-bound battle on the river Thames, to vivid life.