The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

Sikes and Nancy at Trafalgar Studios

Sikes and Nancy at Trafalgar Studios | Theatre review
14 December 2014
Ed Barnes
Avatar
Ed Barnes
14 December 2014

James Swanton’s one-man dramatisation of Charles Dickens’ Sikes and Nancy (a version of the murder scene in Oliver Twist adapted for public readings) is a brilliantly madcap hour of Victorian melodrama. Sikes & Nancy, courtesy Edward Quekett HRSwanton, armed only with six mismatched wooden chairs and a long black coat, conjures the spirits of Fagin, Sikes, Nancy and more with a vigour that would put Brian Blessed to shame.

Part of the show’s success, however, is due to Swanton’s over-acting. Dickens is generally regarded to have created caricatures rather than characters, with bizarre names and ridiculous habits, and Swanton takes this to the extreme with his cartoonish, larger-than-life interpretation. Despite the work starting out as a simple public reading, Swanton’s production focuses a lot more on the physicality of the story, with the chairs providing ample props for a pub, house, road and rooftop, and Swanton’s gangly frame twisting into Fagin’s gaunt hunch, Sikes’ imposing muscle and Nancy’s delicate figure.

The story is built up beautifully, with Swanton narrating Dickens’ original readings between characters, but it is the murder scene and its repercussions that provide the real action of the play. Nancy’s death is pitiful and poignant, and the horror that haunts Sikes following his devilish deed is almost palpable. The false blood that makes the murder so gruesome is soon being used to highlight Sikes’ own moral anguish as he rubs his hands and arms nervously, never taking his eyes off the body that remains invisible to the audience.

Aside from Swanton’s melodramatic acting and exaggerated voices, which drew a few titters, there were few actual laughs to be found in the piece, but there is a constant undercurrent of gallows humour, resolved perfectly by both Sikes’, and latterly his dog’s, accidental death. The dark humour, the suspenseful storytelling and the over-the-top characterisation create a perfect production of a Victorian penny-dreadful, and it’s testament to both Dickens and Swanton that the piece is as chilling and gripping today as it was when it was first performed.

Ed Barnes
Photos: Edward Quekett

Sikes & Nancy is on at Trafalgar Studios until 3rd January 2015, for further information or to book visit here.

Related Itemsdickenshorrormurderoliverone manplay

More in Theatre

Disenchanted Online

★★★★★
Regan Harle
Read More

Thick’n’Fast: General Secretary Online

★★★★★
Sylvia Unerman
Read More

Living Newspaper – Edition Three at the Royal Court Theatre Online

★★★★★
Selina Begum
Read More

Hysterical! The Hilarious History of Hystery at Theatre Royal Stratford East Online

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

Playfight at Finborough Theatre Online

★★★★★
Jonathan Marshall
Read More

Katherine Parkinson’s Sitting: Adapted for BBC Four

★★★★★
Jonathan Marshall
Read More

Flavour Text at Chronic Insanity Online

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Remembering the Oscars Online

★★★★★
Shawna Warmington
Read More

Via Brooklyn Theatre Company: Testament Online

★★★★★
Francis Nash
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Theatre review

Dates

9th December 2014 - 3rd January 2015

Price

£15-£30

Links & directions

WebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Snabba Cash
    ★★★★★
    netflix
  • Shake Shack launches limited edition Vegan Crispy Shallot Burger in partnership with chef Neil Rankin
    Food & Drinks
  • This Is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist
    ★★★★★
    netflix
  • Celebrate the EE BAFTAs this Sunday with Claude Bosi’s free virtual dining experience
    Food & Drinks
  • Barker-Turner Overdrive: An Evening of Duets at the Tunbridge Wells Forum Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Disenchanted Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Sensation
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Thick’n’Fast: General Secretary Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Beast Beast
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Oak Room
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Playfight at Finborough Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Power
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Godzilla vs Kong: A colossal brawl that magnificently delivers what we tuned in to see
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Wellington Paranormal
    ★★★★★
    vod
  • Worn Stories
    ★★★★★
    netflix
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Potted Sherlock at the Vaudeville | Theatre review
Miss Havisham’s Expectations at Trafalgar Studios | Theatre review