YOUTH THEATRE REVIEW: Bleak Expectations - The Garrick Theatre, Stockport.

'Bleak Expectations' is a book, a radio comedy series, and now also (apparently) a play too, all written by Mark Evans. As the title suggests, (a combination of Bleak House and Great Expectations), it is an over-the-top parody of the Dickensian novel, as well as the mores of the Victorian era, and the standards of the time. Of course all of this is with particular reference to Charles Dickens, who may or may not be Pip Bin in this play, but if not, the character is certainly drawn from much of Dickens' writings and life. Pip Bin acts both as narrator in his own story as an old man, and as his younger self during his escapades (played by a different actor).

The story follows the early life of Pip, along with his two sisters, Poppy and Pippa. On the cusp of his 18th birthday, his father dies, his mother goes mad, and his fortune passes to the children's guardian, Mr Gently Benevolent. However, it turns out that Benevolent he is anything but, and is in fact evil personified, and sends Pip away to the worst boarding school in the country where the boys are ritualistically murdered on their 18th birthdays. We follow the adventures of Pip, and his new-found best friend Harry Biscuit, as they try to defeat the evil Benevolent siblings (of which there are four!), and restore their mother to health, and bring their family and the family's fortune back together again. 

The script is full of silliness following in the footsteps perhaps of such things as Monty Python and The Mighty Boosh. It's irreverent, corny, and performed in a pacey, tongue-in-cheek manner it would be having the audience wetting their seats laughing!

In this production, performed by Stockport Garrick's own Youth Theatre, it lacked pace sadly, and as such lacked punch and we missed many of the jokes. This was most unfortunate, but was, I must stress, not the actors faults at all. All the cast gave of their best throughout, performing as they had been directed to do so, and so much credit must be given to them for finding as much comedy and bringing as much to their characters as they did. The play was directed by Faye Harrison, assisted by ex-youth theatre members James Fagan and Ben Wilde; but perhaps three heads spoilt the broth rather than being better than one. Stylistically, the play was not in the correct genre, and the performers didn't seem to be aware that they were performing in a farcical parody and needed to be BIG and larger-than-life all the time in order for it to work. Further, the sound levels were poor this evening and both my companion and I were missing much of what was being said on stage. When the actors dipped their voices or spoke rather quickly, then it was lost beyond the first few rows. This could so easily have been a superb production, as it was obvious that the stage contained many talented and dedicated young actors and actresses, all of whom were working extremely hard this evening; sadly though, in the wrong direction. The only (few) laughs that they garnered this evening were from those young people (family, friends, fellow youth theatre members) who already knew the script or had a good idea of what to expect. The success of a show such as this can only be measured by how much and how heartily the audience laughs, and judging from this evening's audience's reactions, I can only say that it needs a lot of work yet. Perhaps, as an ameliorator to my negativity, it might also be said, that this play should perhaps be given to older actors; there could have been (and more than probably should have been) far more sexual innuendo and implied activity throughout which would have helped the comedy. Obviously though, given their ages, this would not have been appropriate for these students to perform. 

Another thing which didn't help this evening was the set design. We were presented with what looked like a filthy rundown back alleyway with a very rough sketch of hills in the distance. Sadly, this set didn't work for any of the various locations of the play. We had Pip's home (interior and exterior), a church, a boarding school, London, and goodness knows what else, but never anything that seemed to assimilate with what was on stage. A black box with no set at all would have worked better. Moreover, many of the entrances and exits didn't make any sense either.

Once again, I stress, the young performers are not at all to blame for any of this. They worked extremely hard and I was very surprised and impressed by how much they managed to bring to this script despite it being performed in the wrong genre with them obviously not fully cognisant of what was actually required of them. 

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 16.2.23