UK Theatre Network

You do not judge me as others do.

Seeing strong parallels between the original Pip, a poor boy in Victorian England, aspiring to become a gentleman and an uneducated Indian boy wishing to benefit from closeness to the ruling British elite Tanika Gupta transports Dickens's famous story to India in the mid-19th century and makes colonialism the context of the entire story. Pip is now a poor Indian boy living with his tyrannical sister and her kindly husband Joe, a cobbler (with a very strong northern accent) in a village near Calcutta, the capital and epicentre of the British Raj. Abel Magwitch, the escaped convict, becomes an African sailor from Cape Colony who has endured years of abuse by the white man.

Pip is summoned to the crumbling colonial mansion of the eccentric Miss Havisham to play with her adopted daughter, Estella, a girl of African-Indian heritage who she calls "my black princess". After meeting Estella Pip aspires to become “a real English gentleman”, a goal endorsed by members of the British ruling class as they were trying to mould an educated Bengali elite to become high ranking clerks and interpreters for the British administration – “Indian in blood and colour but English in taste.” Pip’s taste is decidedly English as he prefers reading English literature despite his best friend Biggy’s comments that there are Indian writers worth reading. Pip’s dream of Englishness clashes with the ideas of Magwitch who loathes the power hierarchies in colonial India and those of his other father figure Joe Gargery who foresees and fears the deep gulf that will open between him and Pip once he has fulfilled his dream. Magwitch and Gargery already anticipate the changes that are to come. Calcutta was the centre of the anti-colonial struggle. When Pip arrives he sees Indians hanged for sedition and treason and Bengali speakers evoking Indian patriotism. He moves in with his old acquaintance Herbert Pocket who teaches him how to become an English gentleman.

The production opens with the violent encounter between Magwitch and the young Pip. Staged in a cremation ground the scene is veiled from the audience by a gauze curtain.  The set design (Colin Richmond), especially of Miss Havisham’s shadowy and decaying house, is most impressive. When Pip enters her house for the first time, the billowing curtains and dark lighting (Lee Curran) intensify his fear and sense of inferiority. Another atmospheric scene features the final meeting of Pip and Magwitch in prison.   

Sadly, Tariq Jordan’s Pip does not evoke much sympathy. Futhermore, there is no obvious change in his character up to the very end. Perhaps the director meant to convey that Pip remains a child and only finds his true self once he accepts his heritage. Lynn Farleigh’s performance as Miss Havisham is authoritative and powerful but also shows her helplessness. Jude Akuwudike is an outstanding Magwitch and Giles Cooper is immensely likeable as the young capitalist Pocket. I also enjoyed Russell Dixon’s performance as Pip’s guardian Mr Jaggers who “has no prejudice regarding the colour of his clients’ money.”

Although the writer’s idea of relocating Dickens’ epic story to India is fascinating it doesn’t quite work. Trying to emphasize the colonial aspects of the novel the dramatist went overboard at times as in the scene when Pip asks Ms Havisham if Estella was aware of her African-Indian heritage. There are also various slapstick moments that grate with the mood of the scene. Pip’s clumsy attempts to make a pass at Estella when they meet again after many years seemed very wrong.

However this still is an intriguing production and well worth seeing.    

The show still runs until 9 April 2011 at the Richmond Theatre.

Richmond Theatre,The Green, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1QJ
http://www.ambassadortickets.com/2235/659/Richmond/Richmond-Theatre/Great-Expectations-Tickets