Dickensblog

Sam Mendes's 'David Copperfield': A review

By Cody M. Quanbeck, guest blogger

I wasn’t initially sure I would listen to the new audio dramatization of David Copperfield from director Sam Mendes and adapter Marty Ross, since I wasn’t a fan of their adaptation of Oliver Twist. What ultimately convinced me to give it a try was the casting of Helena Bonham Carter as Betsey Trotwood. In my experience, Bonham Carter can be a very charismatic performer, but I had a hard time picturing her as the character. That’s the beauty of audio dramas, however. To my mind, Helena Bonham Carter may not look physically intimidating enough to be Betsey Trotwood, but that doesn’t occur to me while I’m listening to her stellar vocal performance. (Sadly, though not surprisingly, this adaptation doesn’t give the character the emotional arc she had in the book, but that’s not the actress’s fault.)

The cast’s other standout is Richard Armitage, who sounds awesomely creepy as Mr. Murdstone. Ncuti Gatwa is also great as the title character. (When that character is an adult, that is. Reece Kenwyne Mpudzi voices him as a child.)

But not everyone is so well cast. Rhiannon Clements sounds too mature to be Dora Spenlow, making the character’s occasional brattishness and general immaturity less tolerable than they should be. To be fair, though, the problem there may lie more with the writing than the acting.

Ah, the writing.

New 'Oliver!' production from Cameron Mackintosh opens tomorrow

Legendary producer Cameron Mackintosh and director-choreographer Matthew Bourne are bringing a new, "more intimate production" of the Lionel Bart musical Oliver! to the Chichester Festival Theatre in West Sussex, England. From there the production is expected to move to London's West End in December. This is a drastic change from Mackintosh's previous "huge" stagings of the musical with director Sam Mendes in 1994 and 2009. 

On the casting, Playbill reports:

The cast will be led by the previously reported Simon Lipkin (Guys and Dolls) as Fagin, Shanay Holmes (Miss Saigon) as Nancy, Aaron Sidwell (Henry VI) as Bill Sikes, Billy Jenkins (Les Misérables) as the Artful Dodger, and Philip Franks (The Rocky Horror Show) as Mr. Brownlow.

Newly announced for the production are Oscar Conlon-Morrey (Mother Goose) as Mr. Bumble, Katy Secombe (The Music Man) as Widow Corney, Stephen Matthews (Strictly Ballroom) as Mr. Sowerberry/Dr. Grimwig, and Jamie Birkett (Peter Pan Goes Wrong) as Mrs. Sowerberry/Mrs. Bedwin.

Sharing the role of Oliver Twist will be Cian Eagle-Service (The Witches), Raphael Korniets (The Snowman), and Jack Philpott (The Witches).

The Chichester Festival Theatre website has rehearsal footage and photos along with a link to purchase tickets. 

More from the Dickens Museum

On July 3, at 2 p.m. U.K. time, Dr. Claire Wood and Professor Hugo Bowles will give a virtual talk on "Decoding Dickens: The Shorthand Mysteries," focusing on shorthand texts written by Dickens that are still being deciphered. Go here to learn more and to sign up! 

And if you're in London or plan to be there sometime in the next few months, go check out the exhibition "Faithful Companions: Charles Dickens & His Pets," which "explore[s] the stories of Dickens's own pets and some famous animals from his novels through precious objects, such as his hand-written letters, family photo albums and artworks." It runs until January 12. To promote the exhibition, the Museum's Facebook page offers a reading by Helena Bonham Carter of Mamie Dickens's anecdote about her father, his cat, and a candle; and Simon Callow's reading of a passage about Bull's-eye from Oliver Twist.

TCM alert

Oliver Twist (1948) airs at 3:30 p.m. Eastern today, as part of a day of British productions.

TCM alert

Oliver! (1968) airs on the channel at midnight Eastern tonight, as part of its "First Name Basis" feature (films named after their main character).

New editions of interest

Oxford University Press is releasing Dickens's works in a new scholarly edition. Sketches by Boz is already out; Nicholas Nickleby and The Uncommercial Traveller are coming later this year. They're billed as "the first complete authoritative edition of his works" and promise "comprehensive annotation." (Which perhaps explains the prices!)

Meanwhile, for those of us who just enjoy pretty covers, Chiltern Classics recently added Oliver Twist and Hard Times to their Dickens inventory.

'The Artful Dodger' rides again

The Hulu/Disney+ series about the further adventures of the Dodger is now available. We find Jack Dawkins (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) living in Australia and working as a surgeon, who for some reason is always performing operations in front of a large and boisterous crowd. (To make extra money for the hospital? I'm not sure, but I can't imagine why else a hospital would admit audiences.) In his off-hours, he gambles -- so badly that he's racked up serious debt, and his creditors are threatening to cut off his hand.

And just in case life wasn't messy enough, along comes Fagin (David Thewlis), who has escaped the gallows and is eager to draw the Dodger back into a life of crime, just when his debts have made him vulnerable. Add to that a chance meeting with Belle Fox (Maia Mitchell), the governor's medically ambitious daughter who soon spots and exploits his vulnerability, and the Dodger is in even deeper than he thought.

The series relies rather heavily on common tropes, from the combination of period piece with modern music and jarring camera angles, to the restless, know-it-all, ahead-of-her-time heroine who's mad for science. And there were a few scenes -- extreme closeups of surgery and a couple of other medical gross-out moments -- that made me squeamish. But on the plus side, the pilot episode was lively, fun, and never dull, ably carried by its spirited cast. The characters are nicely fleshed out, especially Dodger, who blends a wild streak with an unshakable sense of responsibility and a compassionate heart, and I enjoyed following them through their machinations and maneuverings.

I probably won't review the rest of the series, as it's a spinoff/sequel and not a direct adaptation, but I do think I'll watch it. Even if I sometimes have to watch it between my fingers.

Another 'Artful Dodger' trailer

This one is a little longer and gives us a somewhat fuller picture of what the Dodger (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Fagin (David Thewlis) have been up to.

Teaser trailer for 'The Artful Dodger'

The first trailer is here:

As you can see from the logo, the show will air on Hulu in the U.S., along with Disney+ in Australia.

TCM alert -- a trifecta!

There's a triple-header of Dickens films on the channel early tomorrow morning, as part of a "coming of age" theme. David Copperfield (1935) starts at 2:15 a.m. Eastern, Oliver Twist (1948) at 4:30 a.m., and Great Expectations (1946) at 6:30 a.m.