The Mystery of Charles Dickens

Synopsis

A thrilling and original new play by the author of the definitive Dickens biography Peter Ackroyd. This is a funny, moving and compelling insight into the life, times and mind of one of England's greatest writers.

Star Simon Callow gives an insight into the Victorian life and times of Dickens, interweaving his own turbulent story with some of his most memorable fictional characters.

Don't miss your chance to book tickets for this great solo show.

Our Review:

18 September 2012

It's only natural to give veteran actor Simon Callow an entire stage to himself. Like the master that he is, Callow owns every inch of the stage in his reprisal of Peter Ackroyd's one-man show, The Mystery of Charles Dickens directed by Richard Twyman.

Stepping into the shoes of the most English of great English novelists, Callow takes the audience through the well-worn streets of Victorian England making stops at crucially painful and illuminating points of the author's enigmatic life and world of fiction.

Dressed as Dickens, Callow's bearded self is framed (3 times over) in a replicated study designed by Christopher Woods. Suggesting each narrative framework of Peter Ackroyd's multi-faceted play, the middle frame is slanted, cleanly gashing across the corner of the study. As Callow breathes the life and soul of Dickens, the slant aptly portrays the dark shadows cast by his fractured early life that later wrote its...

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Latest User Review

Gina Kirby - 20 December 2012:

I was in London in November, wanted to go to the theatre and found it was the last night of Simon Callow's performance about Dickens. What a great evening and such an excellant actor. Living in the "colonies" one really misses top class theatre....

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