Exceeding Expectations – a review of “Great Expectations”

Reviewed by Dr. Tiffany Knight Raymond, PhD and Theron Raymond (6^th grader)

Prime Stage Theatre Company brings Neil Bartlett’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ famed 1861 Victorian novel, Great Expectations, to the stage.

The story of woe-begone Pip (Sam Lander), the orphan from Great Expectations, is the story of youth reaching success not by their own bootstraps, but by virtue of an unknown benefactor. The play opens with Pip recounting his parentless youth and 5 dead brothers, their tombstones “like lozenges.”

Costume designer Meg Kelly has Pip in a white puffy shirt, his pants held up by simple suspenders. He is a boy with few prospects, aside from his apprenticeship as a blacksmith to his kindly brother-in-law, Joe Gargery (compellingly played by Jeff Boles). As a poor blacksmith’s apprentice, Pip’s stark white shirt could use some smudges to reinforce his career and societal position.

Once Pip comes into money,  Kelly visually transforms Pip into a gentleman with a top hat and coat. This earmarks Pip’s socioeconomic status change as well as his transition from country life to London.

Director Art DeConciliis proves clothes don’t make the man. The fact Pip’s costume change is only outerwear signifies the superficiality of this rapid shift. Pip’s friend, Herbert Pocket (Alex Brandel) tutors Pip in the mannerisms to match his new status, chiding Pip as he licks his knife. DeConciliis transforms Lander from a slack-jawed county bumpkin gazing agog at bustling city life to a gentlemanly dandy who spends profligately.

Scenic designer Alex Barnhart visually juxtaposes the high and low. Stage right is occupied by heiress Miss Havisham’s home while stage left is the down-trodden Gargery home. The set design mirrors Pip’s character transformation he crosses center stage, moving between worlds. Ultimately, it is the Gargery home that evolves into Pip’s London digs, reinforcing he may have been lifted from poverty, but his new station is built on low class foundations.

DeConciliis appropriately cultivates twinning ice queens in Miss Havisham (Jennifer Sinatra) and her adopted daughter, Estella (Michaela Isenberg). Sinatra sneers, and Isenberg is eternally unimpressed, delivering her lines flatly and factually. When Estella tells Pip she “has no sympathy or heart,” he refuses to believe her. Lander is so wide-open and vulnerable in his portrayal of Pip that he can’t fathom a truth so different from his own.

Opening night ended with a virtual post-show discussion with Mark Charles Dickens, the great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens. It was after 2 am in England, but despite the late hour, Mr. Dickens was charming and dapper, dressed in a blazer and button down.

He shared that Charles Dickens’ father was sent to debtor’s prison. Young Charles only had 3 years of education before going to work in a factory, making his humble origins a possible inspiration for Pip. Dickens became a champion of the underprivileged through his literature, resulting in legal reform for the poor.

Mr. Dickens got a chuckle when he shared his favorite adaptation of a Dickens work is The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992). In fact, that film is how children of the Dickens family are first introduced to their famous ancestor! Glide into holiday season with Dickens from Great Expectations with Prime Stage to a family viewing of The Muppet Christmas Carol.

-TKR, Ph.D.

“Great Expectations” runs until November 10 at the New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, Pittsburgh, PA 15212. For more information, click here.