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Reviews
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A Tale of Two CitiesBy Charles Dickens Bright Choice is a new theatre company largely comprising students from Cambridge University. Their first production is an adaptation by the company of Dickens’ novel of the French Revolution. It can never be easy to adapt a dense novel and when you know that you are competing with a film version that starred Dirk Bogarde as the identical Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, there is something to live up to. This is by no means a perfect production but it has some very interesting moments. Under Matt Applewhite's direction, the six cast members dive on and off stage and in various clever ways actors manage to confront themselves as two separate characters. This happens not only to the undoubted star, Mark Farrelly who is particularly good as the dissolute Sydney Carton, but also to the versatile, Jenny Grove. Her best moments are as the knitting Mme Defarge who seems to specialise in moth-eaten scarves and bitterness. Generally, one of the company’s greatest strengths is imaginative physical theatre which catches a mood or an impression well. The small cast does fantastically well in conveying the impression of vast crowds. The adaptation tends to work far better in the drama of the scenes in Paris that those in London. There, you get a good feel for the cut and thrust of revolution especially during the storming of the Bastille and in the play's most dramatic moment as Carton does his far, far better thing. In the London scenes, everything is a little too cosy. This is a good introduction to a great novel and particularly after the interval builds some real dramatic tension. It will be interesting to see where this company and especially Mark Farrelly go next.
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