“Shakespeare Was Good, But Charles Was Better!” – Dicken’s Abridged, Arts Theatre, London. 14.12.13

After hearing the news of Jon Robyns ending his run as Sir Galahad in Spamalot, I will be honest and was quite upset, but before he left he announced that he and Kit Orton (Sir Lancelot) would be part of the Cast of Comedy Dickens Abridged, well I was sold, and after my friend has received a tweet from Jon himself, saying you will have to come and see me in Dicken’s,…10 mins after she had bought the Tickets and on a busy Saturday 14th December in London, it was off to be entertained!

Tonight’s show was performed at The Arts Theatre, which is near by to Leicester Square, I had past it many times in my many journeys to London, so I was kind of intrigued to see what it was like. It was small but then where it was based it didn’t feel like a big theatre, but then I’ve been surprised before. We were based in the stalls, and of course Row A seats 8 and 9 coming up at the price of 39.50, and our view was pretty good to say the least!

The set was quite simplistic with 4 huge books placed on the sides of the stage, and small books stacked up here and there, on stage left there was a piano also, throughout these books were used as sets, and props for instance David Copperfield was opened up to reveal Charles’ Bed, Oliver Twist was the grand entrance for one scene, and A Tale of Two Cities…brought a sad end to one scene. The small books stacked up were compartments for props, wardrobe, and other surprises, kind of like Mary Poppins you didn’t know what they were going to produce next! the simplistic set allowed the audience to focus a lot of the cast, and i’m glad they did keep it simple!

Being called Dicken’s Abridged and with the poster having Charles Dickens placed right in the centre, its pretty easy to tell that this musical play is in fact based around Charles Dickens life and the novels he wrote, with a twist however…for within this 90 min performance along with the life story of Charles himself, was I believe 8 classic stories that Charles had written. How this was told was through many new and creative songs, which the actors sung, and played there own instruments to play the music, (I think the best thing about this show was because of this, and the performers didn’t even have microphones! there was something that was just traditional with that to me). I could tell I was going to be viewing something totally different and from the first number The Ballad of Charles Dickens which stated from the very beginning Shakespeare was good, but Charles was Better! It confirmed my theory, what is also funny about particular line is, the director of the show is a creator of The Reduced Shakespeare Company if you see what I mean? The show flowed throughout, and sometimes you didn’t know who was going and who was coming on, but when they did appear they would be someone very different! How they did it that fast! Totally Mystery! Now in between the telling of Charles Dicken’s life they performed the stories, the Stories such as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, and Christmas Carol were performed with a few scenes for each, and stories like Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and The Old Curiosity Shop were a simple yet comical performance of Balladeer (Gerrad Carey), he simply walked along the stage stood by the isle played his guitar and in a 30 -60 sec song he produced the synopsis of those very tales, and then walked off, leaving the audience laughing. The best thing about this show was that throughout you could tell that the small cast were really enjoying themselves, I was rather jealous! But they them two brought the audience in, and made you thoroughly enjoy your evening.

I was also quite cheeky at the end of Act 1, as Charles Dickens shows a newspaper and then flings it into the air, which that night had landed hanging off the stage, when they walked off and it just layed there I couldn’t help but think I WANT IT…so I slipped it off the stage, and had a gander and what it said, then a quick photo, however during this photo the stage hand came out and looked on the ground…you guessed it, I bowed my head in embarrassment and passed it back to her…I really didn’t take it honest…then pose for a photo…but having shared it on Twitter and their Facebook page it got quite a bit of publicity! including retweets, and comments and a share from the Director himself! So I guess I could say TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Now as I have before the cast was very small, and Dickens was performed by 5 Actors:

Gerrard Carey – Oliver Twist, Tiny Tim, and Others

Matthew Hendrickson – Mr. Warren, Mr. Micawber, and Others

Damian Humbly – Charles Dickens and Others

Kit Orton – The Artful Dodger, David Copperfield, and Others

Jon Robyns-Fagin, Scrooge, and Others

Sadly tonight Kit Orton was unwell, and at the beginning of the performance Adam Long, walked to centre stage to tell the news of Kit not performing that night, and in his place would be himself instead, the audience clapped and cheered, which led Adam saying “ha, lets see if you will still be doing that after!” Now Adam Long was the writer and director of this show, and a founding member of the Reduced Shakespeare company, in the beginning of the program he explains the idea’s that created the show, from his memories of Christmas where his friends that he grew up with “Hippies, Punks, bikers, and computer programmers would hire the Cow Palace exhibition hall in San Francisco and transform it into the streets of Dickensians London” people would then buy tickets and would dress as their favourite Dickens Character and walk down these created streets, “there would be Dickensian Crafts for Sale, Dickensian Food and drink, Dickensian music and dancing” it is a tradition that continues to this day. Then through his memories of these events and singing Knocking on heavens door with these fellow friend blended in to then create Dicken’s Abridged, “Its a mash-up of California, and Dickens: The Grateful Dead, meets The Ghost of Christmas Past…with a touch of Mars Brothers thrown in for good measure. (which now explains why throughout the cast speak in an American accent, yes ok I was a tad slow!)” Although it was disappointing that Kit was unwell, but watching Adam perform I will say was a treat, and also you could tell the cast were enjoying it too, they even made the cheeky comments about his performance, like when he had a very long and tricky line to make Gerrad quickly came out with “you got there in the end!” You could tell that Adam was very happy with his work, and he should be!

Now being that all the members of the cast perform the many characters of the Charles Dickens novels, including the female roles! Damien was a great Charles Dickens, with great presence when he performed the role, and my word did he really love the bludgering scene of Nancy from Oliver Twist!

Gerrard Carrey was very funny, and a great comedy performer, he always had a very innocent face, and his Catherine Dickens Outburst was Classic! As well as Agnes from David Copperfield! But what I laughed out the best was his Tiny Tim, where his crutch became an electric guitar, you just didn’t see it coming! Matthew Hendrickson, Mr Warren’s Song was very emotional, performed in a way of a heartbreak break up song in a musical yet this time was just Charles Dickens leaving the Factory for a better life, was a very good start to the show, and then appearing later beside Charles while he lay sick in bed! Jon Robyn’s, most of his character’s that he played would either have his guitar on his back, or was sitting at the piano for most of them, and you could tell that he was enjoying every bit of it! When he played Ellen Charles second wife, the Galahad hair flick made an appearance, though not sure if it was as good! and Ellen’s dance moves were very good if I do say so myself. His other roles were also very good, and he defiantly left us in a Christmas mood with him leading the story of Christmas Carol with the role of Scrooge, and the swift change from Top hat with a wig, to Night cap with a Wig! No one suspected a thing!

I did not get a chance to get a photo with everyone, but my programme is well and truly autographed! I was lucky did get one with Gerrard Carrey, and of course my favourite Jon Robyns, who was kind enough to have a chat with us after the show! We even had a quick chat with Adam Long too, and he laughed when I replied it was NOT me that took the newspaper to which he replied “oh that was you!”…oh no they were on to me! but it was all in good humour.

This show at the Arts Centre is only running to the 4th January 2014, and I really want to go again, I feel it is one of the those shows again that every time you go, you will come out seeing something a little bit different then you did the one before, which is why I want to go again…but if you get the chance the GO! but if you didn’t you missed out…REALLY missed out!

Categories: Musicals

Tags: A Christmas Carol Adam Long Charles Dickens David Copperfield Dickens Dickens Abridged Jon Robyns Kit Orton Oliver Twist The Reduced Shakespeare Company

“Shakespeare Was Good, But Charles Was Better!” – Dicken’s Abridged, Arts Theatre, London. 14.12.13

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