The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby - The Royal Shakespeare Company (DVD)

This filmed version of the Royal Shakespeare Company's famous production of 'Nicholas Nickleby' is utterly timeless. In hours and hours of non-stop entertainment, virtually the whole novel is transposed to the stage, and much of Dickens's original lurid prose survives this translation. The huge cast narrates and dramatises the lengthy tale, encompassing virtually every theatrical genre. There is pantomime-style audience participation, farce, melodrama, ...
...story follows the adventures of the young Nicholas Nickleby and his family. It opens as the Nicklebys arrive in London after the death of their father, and seek the support of their rich but harsh uncle, Ralph Nickleby. Nicholas is sent to become a schoolmaster in Yorkshire. The cruelty he finds there launches the story's main action. Nicholas finds himself Ralph's enemy, as well as the enemy of the headmaster, Wackford Squeers, and his grotesque ... more

This filmed version of the Royal Shakespeare Company's famous production of 'Nicholas Nickleby' is utterly timeless. In hours and hours of non-stop entertainment, virtually the whole novel is transposed to the stage, and much of Dickens's original lurid prose survives this translation. The huge cast narrates and dramatises the lengthy tale, encompassing virtually every theatrical genre. There is pantomime-style audience participation, farce, melodrama, comedy and powerfully moving drama.

The story follows the adventures of the young Nicholas Nickleby and his family. It opens as the Nicklebys arrive in London after the death of their father, and seek the support of their rich but harsh uncle, Ralph Nickleby. Nicholas is sent to become a schoolmaster in Yorkshire. The cruelty he finds there launches the story's main action. Nicholas finds himself Ralph's enemy, as well as the enemy of the headmaster, Wackford Squeers, and his grotesque family. On his journey to success, Nicholas tries his hand at teaching, secretarial work, accountancy and (most spectaclarly) acting, before finally meeting his true love.

The sheer number of plot threads running through this fantastic story make it impossible to summarise. The decline and fall of Ralph Nickleby is particularly absorbing, as is the story of Smike, the damaged young man Nicholas befriends at the Yorkshire school.

Set entirely on a fairly plain black set surrounded by a wooden scaffold, a fantastic cast (with the possible exception of the actress playing Kate Nickleby) puts every ounce of effort and imagination into the production. Roger Rees stars as Nicholas (he was later the Sheriff of Nottingham in 'Robin Hood - Men in Tights'), but his supporting cast are equally noteworthy, especially the late Bob Peck, who takes on several roles which are unbelievable in their diversity. Switching from bluff Yorkshire farmer to smarmy lecherous creditor in the blink of a scene can't be easy, but Peck pulls it off. He was the warden in 'Jurassic Park' and of course made his name in the seminal BBC drama Edge of Darkness - but you won't recognise him.

Christopher Benjamin turns in a career-defining performance as theatrical legend Vincent Crummels. Not only is his performance clearly the template for Jim Broadbent's magnificent turn in Moulin Rouge, but he also played a near identical part in classic Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang. If you want an exuberant theatre owner, Benjamin's your man. He's a massively under-rated actor, apparently prefering the stage, and he steals every scene he's in.

The play has a vast emotional range, as I've already hinted. It goes from outright comedy (such as the scenes at the theatre company), to heart-rending tragedy (Smike's final scene). True to the spirit of Dickens, the characters are a lively mixture, with some real grotesques lurking around behind the comedy caricatures. For every miserly Albert Gride, hoarding the same bottle of wine for thirty years, there is an evil Wackford Squeers, thrashing the living daylights out of his pupils. If the central character of Nicholas appears a little too squeaky clean in all this, it's because his honest nature is the best means of showing up the faults of all the monsters and clowns that inhabit the deceptively cosy Victorian world of Charles Dickens. Behind the gentle comic antics of the bourgeoisie lies London's cold streets, tuberculosis and forced marriages. Ralph's downfall shows this most clearly, as he runs through London, his friends deserting him.

There are no cinematic effects in this production, which is filmed almost entirely as it appeared on stage. This gives it an occasionally odd feel, when walls are represented by people's backs, and so forth, but it just serves to highlight the brilliance of the original production.

There is a huge cast of characters, as I have said, but one of my favourites is Smike. His harsh treatment has kept him in a state of 'arrested development', but his continual innocence, which he maintains right to the end, is a source of much pathos and humour. He shines as an actor with his heartfelt cry of 'Who calls so loud?' when he plays the part of the apocethary in a hilariously re-jigged version of Romeo and Juliet (true to Victorian tradition, both the lovers survive, as well as Mercutio). This comic splendour is later turned upside-down as he and Nicholas re-enact the scene at Smike's deathbed.

This production really is fun for all the family. One of my favourite novels transformed into a magical play (even if it is REALLY long) that never gets dull. Back home, we taped it from the television in the 1980s, and we watched it as a family every summer (an odd ritual, but there you are). We were delighted when the DVD box set came out just as it looked as though the tapes were going to be worn right through!

People don't really much watch theatre on TV, and the idea of buying a DVD boxset of a theatrical play might seem a bit odd. Theatre is unquestionably best enjoyed live. But this really was one of the greatest stage productions of the 20th Century, and so it deserves this stab in immortality.

Watch this, watch it now, and do NOT get it confused with the dreadful film version that came out a couple of years ago. 

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