Jack Studio Theatre – until 23rd May 2026
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
3***
I have never managed to get all the way through a Charles Dickens book, so my memories of his tale of revolutionary France are all film-based. In particular I remember Christopher Lee as the dastardly marquis and Rosalie Crutchley’s chilling Madame Defarge. That 1958 version had a large, stellar cast, so I was intrigued to see Liz Love’s adaptation with an ensemble of seven actors.
The famous first lines are shared by Miss Pross (Nikki Claire Durrant) and Madame Defarge (Caroline Edwards) as they sit either side of the stage, in front of the union flag and the tricolour, knitting like the tricoteuses at the guillotine. Opening with the aftermath of the marquis fatally wounding a man trying to save his sister from the marquis’ brutality. Poor Doctor Manette (Joe Childs) is imprisoned to keep him quiet and a brisk jump forward sees his now adult daughter Lucie (Liv O’Connor) and her guardian Miss Pross collecting him from the care of the Defarges and sailing home to England. On this voyage they meet Charles Darnay (Aryan Chavda) who is accused of spying for the French but is defended in court by the mercurial Sidney Carton (Reece Lewis). These chance meetings set in motion Dickens’s twisting tale of love, honour, fanaticism and vengeance.
Love has trimmed the story and characters to create this 95-minute version that gallops through the plot but, after the slightly erratic first scene, never feels rushed under her direction with emotional moments given time to settle. Without the minor characters and hordes of revolting citizens the story and motivations of the main characters are easy to follow, and although there are some clunky exposition sequences from the knitting narrators, the sense of jeopardy and impending doom hanging over Darnay is palpable, and the haunting simplicity of the final scene is very effective.
James Connor’s lighting and sound design is suitably dark and moody, with a commendable attempt to convey the chaos of the storming of the Bastille with such a small cast.
Aryan Chavda impresses as Darnay – all stiff upper lip and smouldering stolen glances with Lucie, while Reece Lewis is a powerhouse of barely contained energy as the louche Carton, collapsing into tender despair as he talks of his love for Lucie. Liv O’Connor gives Lucie strength and gentility; Joe Childs gives a heartfelt performance as the broken doctor and Nikki Claire Durrant’s Miss Prost is bright and brittle. Vince Mathews is carelessly cruel as the marquis, and very funny as Carton’s hapless legal opponent and the solid Earnest Defarge. Caroline Edwards nails the cold fury of Madame Defarge, but the menace starts a little too fast and furious in the play, leaving her nowhere to go to ramp it up as events escalate, so when she finally runs around with her meat cleaver the effect is more comical than terrifying.
A concise and entertaining adaptation.