The Mystery of Charles Dickens

Dublin: Gaiety Theatre
October 8-13, 2001

New York: Belasco Theatre
April 18 - June 30, 2002

mysterchasdickens.bmp (293334 bytes)
Simon Callow

books by and about Charles Dickens
books by Peter Ackroyd

The Mystery Of Charles Dickens DVD
The Mystery Of Charles Dickens VHS

    Upon concluding the performance of The Mystery of Charles Dickens at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin on opening night, Simon Callow, following the third curtain call, called for quiet and made a curtain speech. Acknowledging that such a thing is rare nowadays and not particularly approved of, he explained that he felt compelled to pay homage to Micheál Mac Liammoir, the long-deceased legend of the Irish stage. Callow once worked briefly for Mac Liammoir as his dresser, and the experience, he explained, changed his life. One of Mac Liammoir’s most famous performances was The Importance of Being Oscar, a tribute to Oscar Wilde which worked biography and performance through about an hour and a half of bardic storytelling. Callow felt he owed Mac Liammoir’s spirit a homage on a night when he had done something very similar with the life and works of that most English of literary and theatrical names: Charles Dickens.
    The script for this show was written by Dickens biographer Peter Ackroyd. It has the tone of an academic lecture at times, using language appropriate to the subject. It is verbose, linguistically and intellectually detailed. Ackroyd employs long, winding sentences which are juxtaposed with those written by Dickens. The intention is clearly a melding of form and content. This works on an aesthetic level and the script is literate and informative. It does make great demands on its audience though, as the mixture of biographical portraiture, scholarly analysis, and interpretative thespian reading results in a dense textual mesh which requires close attention. It would make an interesting academic publication in its own right.
    Luckily, Callow is on hand to enliven the proceedings. His superb voice is used to full effect. His clarity is astounding and his stresses and modulations sustain interest throughout the lecture parts. The story is an interesting one and it has been written with excellent attention to detail and an eye for correspondences between themes in fact and fiction, but it is still a lengthy lit-crit treatise. For much of the earlier part of the performance, Callow alternates between sitting and standing without much additional animation. As the play goes on he becomes more energetic, erupting into scenes and speeches from Nicholas Nickleby,The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop before delving into the autobiographical depths of David Copperfield and the dark corners of Great Expectations.
    The actor is required to alternate between four distinct narrative voices. On the most basic level he narrates the story, thereby ‘playing’ Ackroyd (though Callow’s own avowed interest in the subject makes this a blend of voices). Secondly, he assumes the role of Dickens himself, citing lines from his memoirs which fill in parts of the tale with fascinating self-reflection. Thirdly he takes on the various roles of the characters in the novels and of the people in his life (drawing comparisons between them as appropriate). Finally Ackroyd has cited contemporary and historical observers and commentators upon Dickens which Callow also gets to quote. There are lovely remarks by Oscar Wilde and Daniel O’Connell which add local interest.
    Part of the story of Dickens life concerns his latter day reading tours across the British Isles and the United States. Ackroyd explains how the former actor began to blend his theatre and his novels, literally ‘becoming’ his characters on stage. This made the links between the creative and the personal experiences explicit. Despite the contemporary perspective and the references to analyses after the fact, it is clear that this play is an attempt to emulate something of the style and substance of those world-famous theatrical and literary events. Of course Callow is not Dickens, which kind of makes the point moot, but he is as good a stand-in as you could ask for, and the result is a satisfying blend of elements which entertains, educates, and stimulates. The actor rises to the challenge of playing the all-important murder scene from Oliver Twist quite well, but the description of the intensity of the original performance is so evocative that one can’t help but be frustrated by the historical distance between them.
    Along with Scaramouche Jones, this is another fine one-man show featuring a high caliber actor which theatre festival audiences can enjoy. It bears some comparison with Steven Berkoff’s marvelous Shakespeare’s Villains from a few years back, and though it doesn’t quite measure up to that, it should appeal to Dickens fans the world over. It is run through with a serio-comic sense of Englishness which Micheál Mac Liammoir might have found other ways to approach, but it is a worthwhile tribute to a literary great which the old master would have appreciated.