Nicholas Nickleby - Chichester (Review)
Review by David Munro
LET me say at the outset that the production of Nicholas Nickleby at the Chichester Festival Theatre is a triumph.
Played in two parts of about three hours apiece, it is a sprawling yet gripping panorama of Victorian life as seen by Charles Dickens (as adapted by David Edgar) and brilliantly created for the stage by Philip Franks and Jonathan Church.
I saw both parts on the same day and “it didn’t seem a day too long!” My companion, who had never read the book and whose theatrical tastes tend to easily accessible comedies and musicals, was overwhelmed and totally captivated by the production – and dared me to write a word of criticism of it!
One has to listen to vox populi and although, as will be seen, I have a few niggles, I think it goes to prove that once again Chichester has hit the right note and produced something of which they have every right to be proud.
The original and much vaunted Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of the book has been preserved on video and is more ponderous and reverential than this production which swings along with a zest for life and its little ups and downs.
If some of the characters seem a little over the top, well, that was how Dickens saw them and that is how this cast plays them – with humanity and humour.
Stephanie Booth’s Mrs Mantalini, with her devotion to her ne’er-do-well and criminal husband, is all too real, and if you laugh at her pretensions it is with a lump in the throat for her self-deluding naiveté.
John Ramm as Newman Noggs is a perfect personification of the honest, but put upon clerk whose conscience drives him to try and put a spoke in the wheel of his master’s more nefarious business doings; a heart-warming Dickensian character perfectly brought to life.
And then, of course, there are the Crummles – the actor manager, his family and troupe of players, a wonderful team of period “luvvies” whose dreadful performances are only justified by the bravado and panache with which they are put on.
Bernard Lloyd and Veronica Roberts as Mr and Mrs Crummles get their characters down to a “T” without over-acting or exaggeration as does Philippa Stanton as their awful, precocious daughter – The Infant Phenomenon.
They are as Dickens saw them and intended them to be seen and very funny they are too. Their production of Romeo and Juliet is judged to a nicety and is also very, very funny. This ends the first part and prepares one for the more sinister goings on in the second part.
For those who haven’t read the book it deals with the journeys and traumas of a penniless, good-hearted middle class boy, the eponymous Nicholas Nickelby, in his attempt to find fortune and happiness.
The book is therefore episodic and the play perforce as well, but David Edgar has skilfully eased the progress from one adventure/escapade into the next with a narrative exposition given by one or other members of the cast which works well and is not obtrusive.
One of the episodes in the first part concerns a dreadful school run by Wackford Squeers (a delightfully disgusting and evil portrayal by Pip Donaghy) in creating which Dickens pours all his hatred and disgust of his own childhood.
Nickelby is employed as a master and revolted by the treatment of the children and one child in particular – Smike – gives Squeers a taste of his own medicine and leaves the school taking Smike with him.
Dickens saw in Smike all the slow witted and put upon children he had come across in similar circumstances. David Dawson plays him as a cross between ET and Gollum. It is a brilliantly effective and at times very touching performance but I did wonder whether Dickens saw him as quite such a grotesque.
The play, like the book, obviously focuses on The Nickelby family – Mrs Nickelby and her children, Kate and Nicholas, who have to look to Ralph Nickelby, the deceased Mr Nickelby’s brother, for help. He, of course, exploits them; although all comes right in the end.
Susan Jameson made a sad character out of the vacuous and ingenuous Mrs Nickelby who is unable to cope with life although is willing to try to do her best for her children. As always with Miss Jameson, you cannot fault her performance and she is given opportunity to display her versatility as, with the rest of the cast, she has other characters to play.
Kate Nickelby is very much the Dickensian heroine, pretty and not much use which is how Hannah Yelland plays her. I had always seen Kate as a stronger character but this reading does make sense of her semi-acquiescence to her uncle’s nefarious schemes. Miss Yelland, too, had another part to play, a girl/boy in Crummles’ troupe and proved she has comic talents as well.
In the first part, I had grave doubts about Daniel Weyman as Nicholas, when it seemed that here was a “Hamlet” without the Prince of Denmark, so ineffective did the character appear.
I had to revise my opinion in the second part when he came into his own both as an actor and as the character in the play. The meek ineffectual boy had become a man with character (if you will excuse the pun) and so had Mr Weyman’s performance, which was as incisive as the part he was playing.
Taken as a whole, therefore, it was a good portrayal of a boy growing into manhood and I suspect as the play gets into its run and he gives a hint of the man to be, in the first part, it could well be a great one.
I felt, too, Leigh Lawson’s Ralph Nickelby will improve as the days wear on. He gave me no real feeling of the two-faced villain, a kind and helpful uncle with a black heart. This Ralph Nickelby was an out and out villain with little going for him and his attempts at good nature were palpably false. Nonetheless, it was a good, strong performance and perhaps I should heed my friend’s admonishment and keep my criticisms to myself.
Overall, as you will have gathered, I have nothing but praise for the production and performances of the very hard working and talented cast playing a list of characters running into three pages of the programme.
If I have not singled out more names for mention and praise it’s because if I did, this review would be as long as the a Dickens novel!
That does not mean to say they are not worthy of praise, for they are. Every part was a wonderful cameo of a Dickensian character and none could be faulted – I shall always remember affectionately Ian Aspitel and Steven Alvey’s Cheeryble brothers.
I still haven’t mentioned Simon Higlett’s clever, two-tiered background set which, with the aid of a few props, became London, Yorkshire, Portsmouth or wherever most convincingly.
Obviously not everyone can get to both parts in a day and there are only some days anyway when this is possible. I would, however, recommend you see them in order and even if, like me, you find Nicholas a bit nebulous in the first part don’t be put off.
Together they are a great theatrical experience and one which no real theatre lover should miss.
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens – adapted for the stage in two parts by David Edgar.
Music and Lyrics – Stephen Oliver.
Directed by Jonathan Church and Philip Franks.
Designer – Simon Higlett.
Lighting – Mark Jonathan.
Sound – Nick Lidster.
Movement Director – Shona Morris.
Fight Director – Terry King.
Music Director – Jonathan Williams.
CAST: Steven Alvey; Ian Ashpitel; Bob Barrett; David Dawson; Pip Donaghy; Robert Hastie; Stephanie Jacob; Susan Jameson; Leigh Lawson; Dilys Laye; Bernard Lloyd; Christopher Logan; Emma Manton; Alex McIntosh; Abigail McKern; Brian Poyser; John Ramm; Simon Roberts; Veronica Roberts; Philippa Stanton; Zoe Waites; Daniel Weyman; Hannah Yelland.
Chichester Festival Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 6AP.
In Repertory until Saturday, September 2, 2006.
Evenings: 7.30pm/Mat: 2pm
Box Office: 01234 781312