Charles Dickens: A Theatre Under One Hat
7.30pm The Chantry Coach Hall, Castle Street, Thornbury

Performed by Peter Bateson. Tickets £7 (£5 Concessions).
Advanced booking advised to reserve seats. Tel: 07920 196901 or email below. Performance time 2 hours including 15 minute interval.

In the same month as Charles Dickens’ 200th anniversary (7th February), a re-creation of humorous and dramatic public readings from his own works given by him in Britain and America 1853-1870. Shiver with dread, be touched to the heart and laugh out loud as some of his most memorable scenes and characters are brought to life.

Dickens was already a famous and applauded novelist when at the age of 41 in 1853 he embarked on a series of reading tours which were to continue at regular intervals until his death in 1870. First imagined as a novelty and also a source of extra income, neither Dickens himself nor anyone else could have predicted the enormous sensation these tours created.

Dickens travelled all over Great Britain, performing in concert halls and public rooms of all types, to rapturous acclaim. He read, or rather enacted, large sections of his works, including for example the scene of Sikes and Nancy from ‘Oliver Twist’ and also the whole of ‘A Christmas Carol’, which was and remains to this day a particular favourite of the reading public. Dickens also conducted reading tours in the United States, which were received with the same enthusiasm as on this side of the Atlantic.

‘A Theatre Under One Hat’ recreates the setting, mood and appearance of these readings, with one significant difference. Instead of just one or two long readings the programme consists of a number of shorter extracts, combining examples of high drama, pathos and stark horror with some pieces of Dickens’ most sublime comedy.

Works of Dickens which are represented in this performance are Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, A Tale of Two Cities, Nicholas Nickleby and Martin Chuzzlewit.

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