By Alix Cohen
Imagine, dear reader, a young boy set adrift upon the bustling and often unkind tide of the world, furnished with little more than a hopeful heart and a talent for observing its curious inhabitants. Such is David Copperfield.
Born into modest circumstances and early acquainted with sorrow, David falls under the stern governance of a cruel stepfather and is sent to labor when he ought to be learning. Yet capricious fortune does not abandon him entirely. Through hardship, friendship, folly, love, and disappointment, he passes from innocence into experience.
Along his road he encounters a gallery of remarkable souls: some generous, some absurd, some treacherous, and some so comically afflicted by their own weaknesses that they seem determined to educate him whether they intend it or not.
Louise Beresford & Eddy Payne
The play: Mercurial thespians Louise Beresford and Luke Barton cumulatively play nineteen characters opposite Eddy Payne’s David Copperfield in this rowdy interpretation of Dickens’ complex tale.Ebullience, a panoply of accents, and changes so quick they seem as if through revolving doors sustain narrative flow.
Neil Irish’s peel-off, wrap-on costumes (I’m conjecturing) are ingenious as well as farcical and period adjacent. His atmospherically lit set (Mark Dymock) looks like a hand-drawn illustration adding to a sense of respectful parody. Signs indicate change of place.
Clever effects include the overskirt of Emily’s dress spooling out to become a roiled sea and the skirt of a Punch and Judy puppet theater morphing into a table cloth with two outlined place settings.
When characters sharing a scene need to double up: the production employs printed cut-outs on sticks; an extremely tall top hat suspended above a coat on a hanger stands in for Mr. Murdstone; represented by an empty dress, Emily dances between David Copperfield and Mr. Steerforth.
Eddy Payne, Louise Beresford, Luke Barton
Eddy Payne’s David seems perpetually, slightly confused by all that occurs. Straight from the hip reactions make him the perfect foil.
Luke Barton’s men range from gruff to appealingly dotty; his women from rancorous to fluttery (not flimsy). The spectrum is deft and enjoyable.
Louise Beresford’s men teeter at the edge of cliché, while her women all manage to be distinctive.
With David as a straight man to an array of colorful characters and expert editing, adapter Abigail Pickard Price actually packs the entire book into two hours. Her direction is droll, very rarely buffoonish, and clips along with skill.
NOTE: If unfamiliar with the story or unacquainted since adolescence, the piece may confuse. It’s still fun, but you might want to read a synopsis.
Photos by Harry Elletson
Opening: Louise Beresford, Luke Barton, Eddy Payne
Guilford Shakespeare Company presents
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Adapted by Abigail Pickard Price with Sarah Gobran and Matt Pinches
Directed by Abigail Pickard Price
Brits Off Broadway
59 E 59 Theaters https://www.59e59.org/
