Theater review: Great Expectations by the Arden Theatre Company
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Is the book always better?
Doug Hara as Herbert Pocket, Josh Carpenter as Pip, Lindsay Smiling as Mr. Wemmick, and Sally Mercer as Galley Captain in Great Expectations.
Mark Garvin
Mark Garvin
Six actors play more than 40 characters in a story that spans more than 28 years in 20 locations, sharing Charles Dickens’ 13th novel in less than two hours. That’s Great Expectations, and Arden’s production largely lives up to its title.
Director Matthew Decker’s enthusiastic staging of Gale Childs Daly’s adaptation employs many playful techniques familiar to children’s theater audiences. Actors use objects like boxes and trunks to create everything from wedding cakes to horse-drawn carriages; they voice and act not only characters, but creaking floorboards and framed portraits.
Josh Carpenter plays Pip, the poor orphan who dreams of becoming a gentleman. Kate Czajkowski, Doug Hara, Brian McCann, Sally Mercer and Lindsay Smiling play all the other roles, aided by costume pieces designed for quick changes by Olivera Gajic. The doubling complements Dickens’ clever coincidences and surprises.
Each has a primary role. Czakowski shines as Estella, the girl “brought up to wreak revenge on the male sex,” and Mercer is her spooky adopted mother Miss Havisham. Smiling plays Pip’s guardian Joe, the blacksmith, and Hara is Pip’s best friend Herbert. McCann’s broad assortment of characters includes escaped convict Magwitch and lawyer Jaggers.
The fast-paced show tells the novel’s story clearly, but falters with the book’s climactic violent moments. Miss Havisham’s fiery demise is tepidly wrought, and a ferocious battle in the Thames River lacks shock and urgency. The production is strongest portraying the lighter tones of Pip’s story, but those darker aspects are essential to Pip’s extraordinary journey.
Great Expectations raises the issue of whether novels should be adapted into plays (or movies, for that matter): Isn’t the book always better? Maybe, but if this engaging, entertaining and enlightening production sends anyone to the bookshelf, it will have accomplished a lot.
Through Dec. 14, $15-$50, Arden Theatre Company, 40 N. Second St., 215-922-1122, ardentheatre.org.
