The first approach of the festive season can always be marked, in theatreland, by the rearing Christmas spectre of Charles Dickens. Here is something different from Scrooge and his ghosts, though just as bracing a warm-up to the season of goodwill. Three actors perform this zesty bildungsroman about a Victorian boy’s travails through misfortune, adventure – and a formative trip to Yarmouth.
Adapted and directed by Abigail Pickard Price, who was behind last year’sthree-person Pride and Prejudice, this is so much more than a parlour game. Produced by the Guildford Shakespeare Company, it is performed by Luke Barton (from Pride and Prejudice), Louise Beresford and Eddy Payne, and bears the quick-witted theatricality of the old Reduced Shakespeare Company. Like them, it retains the essence of the original, whittled down, with delightful dollops of mischief and invention.
