Some may already know this ticklish literary comedy from the BBC Radio 4 series that premiered in 2007. Now it bursts into life as an adrenalised stage adaptation filled with fast-paced physical comedy, joshing satire and oodles of silliness.
Written by Mark Evans and vigorously directed by Caroline Leslie, it is ostensibly a parody of Dickens, as the spliced Bleak House/Great Expectations title suggests, but sends up a certain kind of Britishness and privilege along the way, from empire to the scourge of boarding schools and 19th century social mores.
“It was the best of times, it was the best of times,” begins the narrator, Sir Philip Bin (Nicholas Murchie, a mischievous David Niven type), who takes us back to misadventures in his early life. He is Pip (Dom Hodson) in his younger incarnation who, like his Dickensian namesake, experiences family tragedy and financial struggle as a boy. He also meets a Magwitch-like convict-cum-benefactor and comic versions of Miss Havisham and Estella (the latter, played by Alicia McKenzie, amusingly does little but giggle).
His life story has plenty of wacky turns: his father is killed by monkeys in a trip to the colonies, after which he is sent off to the boarding school, St Bastard’s, which is designed to kill him off before he can claim his inheritance. The school scenes bring pointed humour around repressed masculinity and the brutal educational system that shapes it. It is all rather familiar but still entertaining, with abounding puns in its references to other schools that nurture toxic masculinity such as “Thugby” and “Beaton College”.
Katie Lias’s set design is original and all nine actors give deft and energetic performances, with linguistic gymnastics including tongue twisters and lines delivered at speed. There are especially strong performances from Hodson as Pip – hapless, good-natured, charming – and his sisters Pippa and Poppy, played by Rose Basista and Caitlin Scott. The latter doubles up, fabulously, as Ripely Fecund, a 28-year-old unmarried “old maid” who gives this story its romantic heart.
Sometimes, it all feels a little too Radio 4. Some jokes are predictable or blunt-edged, especially around retrograde Englishness and privilege. It becomes relentless in its outrageous plot developments, too, but we can’t begrudge the show its weaker moments because of its overriding sense of twinkly-eyed fun. It feels like an effective antidote to pandemic darkness and there are some lovely detailed touches, including the spoof adverts in the programme. If it is comfort theatre, it also zings with intelligence, imagination and comic anarchy.
At the Watermill theatre until 2 July.
