The Chichester Festival Theatre production of The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby Parts I & II will transfer to London’s Gielgud theatre on 5 December (press night 8 December), following the other previously announced Chichester transfer, the Patrick Stewart-led Macbeth, which plays there from 21 September-1 December.
This new production of David Edgar’s 1980 adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic is directed by Chichester Artistic Director Jonathan Church and Phillip Franks and was a hit in Chichester last year. The two-part play follows Nicholas Nickleby, left penniless on the death of his father, as he escapes the influence of his villainous Uncle Ralph and the tyrannical schoolmaster Wackford Squeers and journeys through 1830s England, coming across a variety of eccentric characters along the way.
The original Royal Shakespeare Company production of Edgar’s adaptation, which was directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird (the team behind Les Misérables) at the Aldwych, won six Laurence Olivier Awards in 1980, including Play Of The Year.
The 27-strong cast of this new production, which has been substantially re-written by Edgar, includes TMA Award-winner Daniel Weyman as Nicholas, David Dawson (The Entertainer at the Old Vic), Jonathan Coy (Donkeys’ Years at the Comedy), David Yelland (Man And Boy at the Duchess) and Hannah Yelland (Daisy Pulls It Off at the Lyric).
Nicholas Nickleby plays at the Gielgud until 27 January 2008.
CB