It was a dark night; rain was brooding, the last vestiges
of summer had been swept away by the cold north breeze while curtains were
pulled tight to keep the night out and the warmth in. It might sound like
the start of a gothic horror but it was actually the weather in Darlington as
we ventured to the Civic to watch Jo Clifford's adaptation of the classic
Dickens tale, Great Expectations. It seemed very fitting that it was such
a bleak, cold and uninviting night for this tale by London's finest storywriter
is not one of fun, love and joy but bitterness, resentment and betrayal and
boy, does this version deliver.
I've always loved Great Expectations but I've been regularly
disappointed by dramatised adaptations which seemed unwilling or incapable to
delve truly into the depths of the darkness which lies beneath the story.
They always wanted to provide a happy ending, lighten the scenes with
redemption and benevolence and paint both the main characters (Pip and Estella)
as intrinsically happy souls who ride the rough passages before finding
everlasting joy and love. That's not what this story is about and Jo
Clifford does a magnificent job in keeping the macabre, soul destroying
darkness intact throughout the performance.
Set,in part by a recounting older Mr Pip, the story follows
the life of Pip as he progresses from poor urchin to gentleman, from love
hopeful to cold and stony hearted realist, from wealthy city toff to poor and
cast aside wannabe. In Taylor Jay-Davies (who played all but the oldest
Pip) we had a lead who was able to very convincingly portray Pip from his
earliest years, right through adolescence and into early manhood. Taylor
was totally believable in each of his characters' guises, taking the audience
through Pip's maturing without any question of doubt that we were watching a
young man grow, blossom and then harden to the cruel world around him.
Estella, played by Grace Rowe, was the epitome of
stone-hearted - her tutelage by Miss Havisham (played by the delightful Paula
Wilcox) into the follies of love and the pursuit and ruination of all men was a
delicious foray into the gothic, macabre horror of the soul so often lamented
by Byron and Shelly. Ms Rowe was utterly brilliant; her portrayal of Estella's
journey from total acceptance of Miss Havisham's philosophies on
love to her own realisation that she has been damaged beyond all repair
was played with a sad, sad pathos which at first was the juxtaposition to
Pip's blind affections, but soon became the undercurrent for both the lead
characters.
Jo Clifford's adaptation doesn't just rely
on Pip, Estella and Miss Havisham hold the story, she takes the audience
into a world of dark, circus-like horror which catapults the viewers onto an
almost surreal and certainly unnerving trip amongst the Dickensian underbelly
of life. Humour is used sparingly, and even then only to accentuate the
darkness that follows whilst only Joe Gargery (played by the wonderful Steve
North) and Magwitch (played by the uber-talented Chris Ellison) were
allowed to hold onto any semblance of goodness. There was no place for a
London friendship for Pip, no place for sentiment from Pip to his sister and
certainly no place for any lightening of the mood at the end.
It was great to see so many students in the audience,
obviously drawn by the fact that Great Expectations is always heralded as one
of Dickens' greatest writings. What was even more pleasing was that they
will have witnessed a version of the story which is the closest to how Dickens
wanted his story to be known - it has not the moral ending like Christmas
Carol, it is not a rags-to-riches happy ending like Oliver Twist -
this has the dark, original ending which left readers feeling so cheated
and despondent that he was urged to write an alternative happier ending.
Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, brilliantly adapted by Jo
Clifford is on at Darlington Civic until Saturday 20th October.
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