GREAT
EXPECTATIONS
Ingatestone
and Fryerning Dramatic Club
06.11.2014
As
Herbert Pocket might have pointed out to his protégé Pip, it is the
custom in London society to wear the waistband somewhat higher …
In
Ingatestone's production, directed by Lisa Mathews, Ian Russell makes
an affable Pocket, and Sam Robinson-Thorley a believable blacksmith's
boy turned gentleman. Strong Dickensian characterizations from David
Pitchford as the convict Magwitch, William Wells as put-upon Joe
Gargery and Jenny Godwin as an imperious, melodramatic
Miss
Havisham. Interesting doubling elsewhere, with David Linton playing
both Jaggers and his clerk, and Vikki Luck both the women in Pip's
affections.
Tim
Murphy is Drummle, hardly on stage long enough to register, and the
Aged Parent, bizarrely
going through a pantomime of physical jerks before subsiding into his
armchair.
Satis
House and its world of shadows could have benefited from more
atmospheric lighting, and the large stage could have been better
used. It is effective to have scenes changed, characters
metamorphosed, before our
eyes; pity not to do it more instead of the tedious blackouts.
And
if we can have a young Pip [nicely danced by Cameron Maddock to
Rebecca Kerby's Estella] in a weird ballet to Lana del Rey, why not
in the iconic graveyard scene ?
