Cultural Dessert

'Bleak Expectations' by Mark Evans

18 August 2023

I have been a big fan of the BBC Radio 4 Dickens parody ‘Bleak Expectations’ for many years (reviewed here in August 2008 and November 2012). As I wrote here in 2008: “Mixing its metaphors and Dickensian clichés in an enormous Victorian cauldron of gruel, Bleak Expectations creates a hilarious surreal world that could only exist on radio.” Proving me completely wrong, writer Mark Evans has now adapted his show for the stage and last Saturday we were at the Criterion Theatre in London to see it. The stage version features a completely new cast playing faithful recreations of my favourite characters. Dom Hodson as Pip Bin has exactly the right naive enthusiasm and blissful ignorance of the consequences of his actions, John Hopkins is ridiculously evil as Pip’s ex guardian Gently Benevolent and Marc Pickering has a ball playing all members of the Hardthrasher family. Best of all is JJ Henry demonstrating the unbreakable optimism of Harry Biscuit who is convinced that there is no problem that cannot be solved with swans (and cake!). Caroline Leslie’s production also, cleverly, includes a different guest star each week as the narrator, Sir Philip Bin. On Saturday our narrator was Stephen Fry - who seemed perfectly cast as the short-tempered pompous older version of the show’s protagonist (played on the radio by Richard Johnson). The guest narrator provides opportunities for some very funny ad-libbing with the cast and breaking of the fourth wall. Although I suspect everything is meticulously scripted, ‘Bleak Expectations’ has the feel of an improvised comedy in the vein of ‘Austentatious’ (reviewed here in August 2012). The enthusiastic young cast also reminded me of some of the funniest touring outdoor theatre companies such as the Pantaloons (reviewed here many times) and the Handlebards (first reviewed here in July 2018). It’s all incredibly silly but for a long-time fan it was brilliant. Harrumble!

Labels: Comedy, Drama, Theatre

posted by Robin Simpson @ 4:18 pm