Bleak Expectations Archives - North West End UK

My son, Sam, and I were thrilled to have been invited to the Altrincham Garrick Playhouse to spend an evening watching this hugely entertaining and funny play. Full disclosure, I was a big fan of the original Radio 4 series that inspired this stage adaptation, so my hopes were set high. There is something quintessentially British about the combination of the surrealist, gag-filled scripts from writer Mark Evans and their gentle parodying of all things Victorian that just invokes a knitted tea cosy and a plate of hot, buttered crumpets. How to describe the plot of Bleak Expectations? Basically, take every Dickensian Sunday night telly adaptation you’ve ever seen, pop them all in a blender, add a liberal splash of absolute nonsense and, hey presto! Roughly speaking the story follows the h...

Based on the award-winning BBC comedy of the same name, Mark Evans' Bleak Expectations takes everything you think you know about Charles Dickens work, chucks it in the air and sees where it lands. There are some recognisable features of Dickens - foggy London, mistaken identities, legal intricacies, cruel headmasters. There the similarities deliberately end. Evans' hilarious comedy is narrated by Sir Philip Bin, who takes the audience through his life, introducing the characters who have shaped him. Known as Pip, Sir Philip's overwhelming motivations are to protect his family and find true love. This does not always prove straightforward; he survives the cruelty of a public school with its regular beatings and lack of edible food, his mother goes mad after Pip's father dies abr...

Tag: Bleak Expectations

Bleak Expectations – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

Bleak Expectations – Criterion Theatre