You can do a lot with a Dickens monologue. In the first of these shows, written and directed by Di Sherlock, Linda Marlowe beguilingly meditates on the inner life of the famous jilted bride from Great Expectations. In the second piece James Swanton adventurously follows in Dickens’ footsteps by enacting the brutal savagery at the climax of Oliver Twist. I know which I prefer.
The virtue of Marlowe’s performance is that it tells Miss Havisham’s story from her point of view. Clad in a frayed wedding dress and a white wig, Marlowe hints at the character’s earlier vivacity, transmogrifies into the young Estella who becomes her instrument of revenge, and even does a few sportive magic tricks.
Some of the aspersions on Dickens’ own abandonment of his wife for Ellen Ternan are out of the standard feminist handbook, but this is a witty, unexpectedly sexy evocation of a bitterly wronged woman. Instead of the usual grotesque monster, Marlowe gives us a living woman, faintly reminiscent of Sunset Boulevard’s Norma Desmond, imprisoned by her memories.
In contrast, Swanton goes all out to chill our blood with the story of Nancy’s murder and Sikes’s own spectacular death in Oliver Twist. Dickens himself, when acting the same passages, wrote “Terror to the end” in the prompt book.
Swanton’s problem is that he gives us terror non-stop and, having started on a note of fierce emotional intensity, has to sustain this for an hour. He has a compelling physical presence, suggesting a sprightly, attenuated cadaver, and makes good use of a simple set of six chairs. I’d suggest, however, that the real drama lies in Dickens’ vivid prose and requires less hectically feverish acting.
• Until 3 January. Box office: 0844-871 7632. Venue: Trafalgar Studios
