Stage Door News
Stage Door News
[Mississauga ON, October 2011] On October 20th, Theatre Erindale opens its “Power of Performance” Anniversary Season with (arguably) the largest production the company has ever mounted. Charles Dickens’ The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Part 1 boasts twenty-five actors, playing almost one hundred roles, in as many costumes, on what is perhaps the most spacious and the most property-laden set the Erindale Studio Theatre has ever seen. Expect loads of early Victorian comedy, magic, and melodrama. As the Toronto Star said “[The year] will not bring us a more entertaining, deeply moving, and truly theatrical experience.”
Charles Dickens is one of the most beloved novelists in the English language. Nicholas Nickleby, his third book, was published in serial form during 1838 and -39. Like other great tales including Hard Times, it owes a great deal to his love for the theatre in which he had briefly acted as a young man – which he continued by building a private stage for amateur theatricals in his London home, and touring the world for a famous series of platform readings in later life.
Part 1 features a complete story arc in itself. The death of their father throws Nicholas and his lovely sister Kate on the mercy of evil uncle Ralph. Nicholas is exiled to teach at a sadistic school in Yorkshire from which he rescues the abused orphan Smike, and together they set out – on foot and penniless – across the country. Meanwhile Kate survives the exquisite neurotics in a millinery establishment only to find herself exposed to her uncle’s lecherous business connections. Yet somehow it all ends triumphantly in – you guessed it – the theatre!
Of the story’s many film and stage adaptations, the most famous is David Edgar’s 8-hour 40-actor West End and Broadway 1980 version for the Royal Shakespeare Company, which became one of the landmarks of twentieth-century performance. In 2006, Edgar condensed the play to 6 hours and 24 cast-members for the Chichester Festival, and it once again became an international hit. It is the first half of this abridged version which Theatre Erindale is now delighted to present, directed by Peter Van Wart with Kevin Bowers (the team from the company’s hit 2010 production of The Clandestine Marriage).
“Dickens was the conscience of his time,” says Van Wart. “Yorkshire private school practices, for example, were challenged and amended as a direct result of his narrative installments.” He quotes Dickens, writing of the reactions he aimed for from his reading audience: “in behalf of Nicholas Nickleby, we confidently hope to enlist both their heartiest merriment and their kindest sympathies.” From Theatre Erindale audiences, the directors hope to enlist the same.
The comic epic will be the first of the company’s shows to feature its new matinees, as well as double-padded re-upholstered seating (thanks to regular donors!). Memberships featuring five shows for the price of four continue on sale to the end of the Nickleby run, and the line-up of titles – in the intimate state-of-the-art Erindale Studio Theatre on the campus of U of T Mississauga – is impressive. Collective adaptation 1917: The Halifax Explosion follows in November, classic Canadian comedy Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) in January, international award-winner Our Country’s Good in February, and 1936 Broadway classic Stage Door – with a cast of 29! – in March.
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Part 1 previews October 20, opens October 21, and runs to October 30. Tickets are still only $15.00 – just $10.00 for students and seniors! Performances are Thursday-Saturday the first weekend and Thursday-Sunday the second. Curtain time Thursday is 7:30, Friday and Saturday 8PM, with 2PM matinees Saturday and Sunday. On Thursdays use the CCT Garage accessed from the South end of campus, for all other performances use Lot 1 at the North end. Parking is $6.00. For tickets and information or to receive a free colour brochure, call the Erindale Studio Theatre Box Office at 905-569-4369 or visit www.theatreerindale.com .
2011-10-10
Mississauga: Theatre Erindale opens with “Nicholas Nickleby, Part 1” on October 20