Simon Callow's bravura performance is not to be missed. So many superlatives have already been applied to this tour-de force of a one-man show that it is hard to add anything new. For nearly three years he has performed it on and off all over the world in a manner that cannot fail to be compared to Dickens' own incredible reading tours.
    The curtain rises to reveal a simple but stunning set composed of gold frames within frames, the only pieces of furniture a chair and a table bearing a carafe of water and a glass. From the first instant your attention is grabbed by Simon Callow and it is held throughout. Even the few occasions when he drinks from the glass he does it without losing the focus, as though it is part of the whole. Slipping seamlessly from narrator to Charles Dickens himself to one of his many characters and back again within seconds, sometimes even mid-sentence, his attention to detail and belief in the material means that one never gets lost. One minute he makes us feel he is alone with us, talking intimately as to a friend, the next he is performing on a vast stage. He brings the characters alive and melds them with his own personality and with that of Dickens in a unique fashion. His ability to create visions is remarkable, although one has to give Peter Ackroyd some of the credit for this. I could as perfectly picture Dickens' mother's gold ringlets as the grime and soot of the London in his novels.
    Some additional material has been worked into the current production, which gives us an even clearer vision of who the man was. With as prodigious an amount of energy as Dickens himself Simon Callow leads us through his life from idyllic childhood to workhouse misery, from first literary success to ultimate fame. It is amazing to think that the Pickwick Papers, his first real effort, produced as serial – a forerunner of the soap opera – was selling 40,000 copies a week by the end. It is amazing to think that he managed to write Oliver Twist at the same time, revelling in the difference he compared the contrast to streaky bacon and then proceeded at various times in his life to act, direct, produce, stage manage and create the scenery for several theatrical extravaganzas; and to chair committees and start up newspapers; and to have a full and occasionally scandalous personal life. He campaigned for worthy causes and brought the plight of London's children to public attention in a way never done before.
breAnd then he began his famous reading tours. Successful from the beginning, they increased his popularity as nothing else could. He continued for the rest of his life, against doctors' orders towards the end, to give these lectures in which every one of his characters became colourfully real before his fans. One gets the idea that he was possessed, that his characters began to take over his life, the lines blurring between reality and creation. Dickens' last words were 'upon the ground', words uttered by Little Nell in her death scene. Were they so ingrained in his being that they were the natural expression of the dying man, or was he performing to the very end?
    The first half of this extraordinary evening centres mainly on narration and the story of Dickens' life, while the second takes off, mirroring his performances, with many of his most famous characters coming to life. With his mobile face and wonderful voice Simon Callow switches from Oliver Twist to Fagin, Miss Havisham to Estella, Uriah Heep to Mrs Gamp, imbuing each with their own brand of Dickensian charm. Reminiscent at times of Alec Guiness, at others of Leonard Rossiter, he flawlessly keeps the momentum going to the very end. The only tiny criticism I have is that the description of Dickens' rendering of Bill Sykes' brutal murder of Nancy is already so vivid that when he comes to perform it himself it is vaguely disappointing. But this is very minor criticism indeed of an overall thrilling production.
    To see writer, director, actor and designers working together so perfectly that one cannot see the joins is a rare treat. It is educational, fascinating, funny and moving all at once. I came away with a huge appetite to rediscover the Dickens I know – and to discover the Dickens I do not yet know.
Francine Brody