Authentic Adaptation of Victorian London
“There’s not enough gin in London.” Eugene Wrayman
“She represents every lost soul in London.” Eugene Wrayman
“London’s full of anger.” Eugene Wrayman
London Tide is a new play with music written by Ben Power and PJ Harvey after Charles Dickens’ last novel Our Mutual Friend. I really didn’t take to Dickens at school; maybe you need experience to appreciate his long descriptive passages. The breakthrough came for me when my son was charged with reading Great Expectations. Living near Greenwich, I could relate to those descriptions of Erith Marches, of the prison hulks on the river and Pip’s first terrifying encounter with Magwitch in the graveyard.
So I came fresh to Our Mutual Friend with no preconceptions. I wanted to see it because it was adapted by Ben Power whose productions for the National Theatre have been a strength. The dark, sonorous music by PJ Harvey seems totally in keeping with the sights and sounds of Victorian London. I did my homework, not actually reading Our Mutual Friend but a synopsis!
A body is washed up in the Thames and wrongly identified because the dead man had robbed John Harmon (Tom Mothersdale) of his money and papers. John Harmon is heir to his father’s wealthy estate made out of “dust” or rubbish on condition he marries Bella Wilfer (Bella Maclean), a beautiful but headstrong and stroppy young woman.
The man who finds the body is Gaffer Hexam (Jake Wood) and some of the novel concentrates on his children. Charley Hexam (Brandon Grace) is sent by his sister Lizzie (Ami Tredrea) to become a schoolteacher under the sinister Bradley Headstone (Scott Karim). Lizzie Hexam comes to the attention of a lawyer Eugene Wrayman (Jamael Westman) for her goodness.
Under the assumed name John Rokesmith, Harmon gets lodgings with the Wilfer family in order to meet Bella and then gets a job as secretary to Noddy Boffin (Peter Wight) who has inherited his former employer Harmon’s business. It is Boffin who calls Rokesmith, “Our mutual friend” to Mr Wilfer (Stephen Kennedy).
Ian Rickson’s production is immersed in the Thames with the sound of lapping water and a lighting gantry conveying the hypnotic movement of the water. Bunny Christie’s set uses silhouettes in monochrome, many wooden chairs, and bare boards as boats on the Thames. Her sets add a sense of dark fluidity to the surroundings. It is the costumes which convey the Victorian era and poverty of characters like Jenny Wren (Ellie-May Sheridan) and the Thames boatmen.
London Tide is a play with music rather than a musical and many of the songs are sung by individual members of the cast. The lyrics are by Ben Power and PJ Harvey. The opening scene is powerful as the whole cast climb from the river onto the stage. “This is a story about a death and a resurrection.”
Dickens’ famous descriptions are not narrated but all inserted into the dialogue. The storytelling is compulsive and as if you are having the book read out to you with figures illustrating the words. As Bella Wilfer is adopted into affluence, with cafés, walks in the park and theatre every week, so Lizzie Hexam has to cope with hardship as her father is first murdered and then branded as a murderer with shame on herself and her brother.
The performances are strong, Jamael Westman as the tall and handsome barrister Eugene, Ami Tredrea as virtuous Lizzie and Bella Maclean as Bella Wilfer, “I hate being poor”, whose character improves when she is taken away from her poor family. Ellie-May Sheridan as Jenny Wren steals her scenes as a child with adult responsibilities.
The story travels away from Limehouse to Greenwich and Deptford Creek, to Holloway where the Wilfers live, to Holborn and the Inns of Court and eventually to the Thameside village of Winterbourne near Newbury. I can’t fathom how Bella travelled by river from Greenwich to Holloway. Maybe I’ll have to read the novel?
I liked this richly textured play seeing it six days after press night but I also like PJ Harvey’s dark musical background, so different and atmospheric from the music for Oliver!
In 1865 Charles Dickens was in a train crash at Staplehurst in Kent in the First Class carriage and tended to some of the dying with his flask of brandy and his hat filled with water. He managed to rescue from the carriage his draft manuscript of Our Mutual Friend that he was working on.
Song List
London Song
Embers ans Ash
London, My Beautiful
The Burning Boat
Lizzie Alone
Bradley Headstone
Evening
Eugene Alone
The City and the Field
Holloway
Upstream
Deptford Creek
Homecoming
Production Notes
London Tide
Book by Ben Power after Charles Dickens Our Mutual Friend
Music by PJ Harvey
Lyrics by PJ Harvey and Ben Power
Directed by Ian Rickson
Cast
With:
Penny Layden
Rufus Wright
Brandon Grace
Crystal Condie
Jamael Westman
Joe Armstrong
Jonathan Dryden Taylor
Joshua Lacey
Laura Cubit
Scott Karim
Stephen Kenned
Tom Mothersdale
Jake Wood
Bella Maclean
Ami Tredrea
Beth Alsbury
Peter Wight
Miya James
Georgia Silver
Hayley Chilvers
Eric Mok
Liam Prince-Donnelly
Ellie-May Sheridan
John Vernon
Creatives
Director: Ian Rickson
Movement: Anna Morrissey
Designer: Bunny Christie
Musical Director: Ian Ross
Lighting Designer: Jack Knowles
Sound Designer: Christopher Shut, Tingying Dong
Video and Projection: Hayley Egan
Fight Director: Terry King
Information
Running Time: Three hours 15 minutes with an interval
Booking until 22nd June 2024
Theatre:
Lyttelton Theatre
National Theatre
South Bank
London SE1 9PX
Tube/Rail : Waterloo
Website: nationaltheatre.org.uk
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge at the
Lyttelton Theatre at the performance on
22nd April 202
