These two London premières, performed on the same evening at Trafalgar Studios, with Linda
Marlowe and James Swanton, are ‘Dickens with a Difference’.
Award-winning actress Linda Marlowe (The World’s Wife, Berkoff’s Women) stars in Miss
Havisham’s Expectations as the iconic jilted bride ‘Norma’ Havisham, forever in her wedding
dress alongside the stopped clock and untouched cake.
Prepare to be amazed as she invites us to share her side of the story – a tale of passion, vengeance and more than a little magic.
The show, which had a successful run at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe, is an original take on one of
Dickens’ best loved novels. Wrestling with love, loss and ageing our heroine replays episodes
from the novel from her perspective – at times darkly funny as she explodes the stereotype with
laudanum-fuelled relish. Drawing on the text of Great Expectations, biographical material from
Dickens’ own life and original material by writer-director Di Sherlock, Miss Havisham’s
Expectations is a roller-coaster ride through what it means to be a woman both then and now.
It is followed by Sikes & Nancy, a play adapted and performed by James Swanton based on the
legendary readings Dickens himself used to give. Swanton, dressed entirely in black, enacts the
compellingly and terrible story of Dickens’ most famous murder. His tour-de-force performance
of this masterpiece of Gothic melodrama sees him transform seamlessly from the revolting
Fagin to the unfortunate Nancy; from the righteous Brownlow to the ferocious and terrifying
Sikes. This bravura storytelling is exciting, dark, physical and brutish.
Charles Dickens adapted Sikes & Nancy from the grislier material in Oliver Twist. These
notorious readings shocked audiences into silence; women would scream and faint. ‘I shall tear
myself to pieces,’ Dickens vowed before one performance. In fact, it is now thought that the
strain of the readings hastened Dickens’ early death.
Booking Information
Studio 2, Trafalgar Studios, 14 Whitehall, London SW1A 2DY
Tuesday 9th December 2014 – Saturday 3rd January 2015
Miss Havisham’s Expectations 7.45pm
Matinees (variable days), 3pm
Duration 1hr
Sykes and Nancy Monday to Saturday, 9.15pm
Matinees (variable days), 4.30pm –
Duration 1hr
Prices
Tickets are available priced £15 – £30 per show
(see both shows and save up to £10)
Box Office
Online at www.atgtickets.com/trafalgarstudios
Telephone 0844 871 7632
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