Great Expectations

Using a simple set (which is carefully described in the playbook) and making resourceful use of a brilliantly theatrical storytelling technique, the play conveys all the energy and warmth of Dickens’ richly human story with cinematic quickness and fluidity. Beginning with his humble boyhood at the home of his long-suffering sister and her husband, the kindhearted Joe Gargery, the play follows Pip through his encounter with the escaped convict, Magwitch; his experiences with the bizarre Miss Havisham and her haughty ward Estella; and on to his removal to London where, after his “expectations” are mysteriously made known, Pip aspires to become a gentleman. Moving deftly from scene to scene and place to place, the play involves the audience at every step, building steadily to the exciting climax where Pip gives moving evidence that, in growing up, he has also come of age as a compassionate and altogether admirable human being.