David Copperfield

Synopsis

David has a doting mother. When he grows up he marries her image, the ditsy Dora. This is his tragedy. Even Peggotty's extended family on Yarmouth beach cannot escape the effects. But his tragedy is also our comedy as Uriah Heep and Mr Micawber, Aunt Betsey and Mr Dick, Steerforth and Traddlles, all criss-cross David's wayward path towards his Agnes, his true soul mate.

Our Review:

5 May 2005

Finding theatrical equivalents for Charles Dickens’ “all human life is here” three-volume blockbusters has never been easy. The traditional approach was to fillet the original novel to produce an effective piece of theatre while discarding characters and incidents wholesale. In the last 25 years or so, however, playwrights have dared to put the narrative text first and dispense with conventional characterisation (as in Stephen Jeffries’ Hard Times) or break through all time restraints (as David Edgar did in his award-winning seven-hour Nicholas Nickleby for the RSC).

Giles Havergal tries a different tack with his adaptation of David Copperfield, filtering all through the memory and reflections of David himself – a very valid method given the semi-autobiographical first-person narrative of the original. Two Davids hold the stage almost throughout, the younger enacting what the elder recalls. In Havergal’s British premiere production (the...

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Latest User Review

195.92.168.176) - 10 May 2005:

Terribly dull, and the updating to Edwardian times is utterly pointless. Read the book instead!...

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