To suggest that this Dickens classic suffered a stage death is a slight exaggeration of the Space’s production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, but I must confess it didn’t come to life either. It is clear that it is a well meant production, by a dedicated company, but unfortunately the artistic choices adopted - which in theory should have worked - failed in practice. The task at hand is simply beyond them, and I suspect most theatre companies.
The performance, from its minimalistic set to episodic nature, had a highly presentational quality, and should have successfully translated the novel on the stage. The overall style, however failed to captivate. The orchestration of scenes seemed the direct result of someone taking a hatchet to the novel. Brutal, but a necessary evil. The problem wasn’t the brutality of this - it was the execution and construction of the scene themselves which seemed clumsy and abrupt. The choice of a minimalistic set consisting of four large black boxes, should have liberated the performers, giving building blocks to create scenes. Ironically, they were more of a hindrance. As an audience member I felt aware of frequently being plunged into darkness, while the blocks were awkwardly arranged into ‘new’ configurations. These transitions contributed little and articulated nothing more than varied seating arrangements rather than new environments.
Boasting a cast of 24 performers to cater for 73 speaking parts, the acting style naturally followed suit with performers playing for the most part caricatures rather than characters. All actions/gestures from twitching eyes to dragging feet were premeditated, and grossly over exaggerated purely to indicate the identity of a character rather than to provide insight or depth. The result was something of the melodramatic, or of laboured comic relief. This is not a criticism of the acting company; Andrew Broadhurst in particular gives a great rendition of Squeers. The consequence is that many scenes border on parody, which in turn undermine moments of a serious - dare I say? - naturalistic nature.Overall the heart of the production is in the right place. Such a seemingly impossible task of staging Nicholas Nickleby could only be a labour of love. It is just a shame the production will not fill your life with adventure.
