Bringing Great Expectations to the Southwick stage

“It was my choice. I suggested it to them. I did The Government Inspector there a couple of years ago and it was a big cast. I really, really enjoyed working with a big cast and they have got some great character actors at Southwick who can really put in a good shift. I was looking for something similar where I could again work with a big cast with lots of really interesting character parts, and Great Expectations fitted the bill. I studied English at university and the only thing I can remember is being given a prize for answering something about Great Expectations!

“It's a brilliant story about this boy that meets a convict and it completely changes his entire life – and it is the beginning of corrupting his life. He then meets Miss Havisham and he becomes obsessed with her adopted daughter Estella. And the more obsessed he becomes, the less happy is with his life. He wants to become a gentleman and he gets this great chance to become a gentleman and that is his great expectation. He has got more money than he can ever dream of but he is still overdrawn. He still spends far more than he has got coming in. He's got no moral compass. He despises the life that he used to live and he treats appallingly Joe, the guy who helped bring him up because he doesn't think that Joe is good enough for him now that he is leading life in high society.

“It's a cautionary tale about the ability of money and wealth and power to corrupt. It is him looking back on his life and we have just the one Pip in this version, the one actor playing young Pip and teenage Pip an older Pip.

“It is my adaptation. I read the book again and again and just wrote down what I thought the spine of the story was, and then it's very easy to do an adaptation these days. You can get the book up online as a PDF and you can just copy and paste the bits that you think are going to work. You're not endlessly having to type things out from scratch!”

Richard is directing it as well: “Sometimes you think ‘This is wonderful! and sometimes you think ‘Why? Why on earth have I done this?’ But we have got some great actors. The guy playing Pip is onstage virtually the whole time.”

Adding to the enjoyment for Richard is the fact that it's a family affair for him. His wife is playing Miss Havisham, one of his sons is in the show as well and his other son has contributed to the artwork.