'Old Curiosity Shop' lacks balance

By JOHN FLEMING

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 21, 2000

TAMPA -- Dickens divides people. For some, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Pickwick Papers and all the rest define the great English novel. Nicholas Nickleby was the supreme theatrical event of their lives. Christmas isn't Christmas without A Christmas Carol.

For other people, Dickens' sprawling yarns are long on descriptive detail and short on character development. His works have been done to death on stage, film, radio and television.

Dickens fans have no need to fear that their favorite author has lost his box-office clout. A capacity crowd turned out for Friday night's performance of The Old Curiosity Shop, director Matthew Francis' stage adaptation of the 550-page novel for the University of South Florida's Department of Theater.

After four performances at Theatre II on the Tampa campus, the production transfers to the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg for three shows.

In many ways, The Old Curiosity Shop is an astonishing experience. Scenic designers Barton Lee and Beau B. Edwardson have outdone themselves on a multi-leveled, scaffolded set that is stuffed to the bursting point with (to quote from the novel) "old and curious things . . . suits of mail standing like ghosts in armor . . . fantastic carvings brought from monkish cloisters . . . rusty weapons . . . and strange furniture that might have been designed in dreams."

Dimly lighted, with tendrils of smoke drifting among the oddments, the atmospheric set anchors The Old Curiosity Shop in a powerful sense of place, the squalid underworld of 19th century London, where the urban industrial revolution is being born.

There hasn't been a better piece of stage design seen in these parts, and Francis' direction takes good advantage of the picturesque tableau. As many as three different scenes go on at once in his fluid staging. If the revolving stage is overused a bit, well, you can't really fault someone for enjoying a toy.

But pungent visual style and resourceful direction are not enough. Clocking in around three hours, The Old Curiosity Shop is dramatically inert.

Little Nell and her grandfather, a dealer in curiosities, meet their full quota of Dickensian eccentrics in wandering "barefoot through the world" to stay one step ahead of the money lender Quilp. But after a while, they all blend together. Who is that bearded gent, and why is he in hot pursuit of the pair? You need a chart to keep all the characters straight in the mostly student cast.

The problem with the adaptation is lack of balance. The most vivid character by far is the relentless Quilp, in a scenery-chewing turn by Jeff Norton, but there's no one on the side of virtue to match him. Nell (Rebecca Hedden) is little more than an angelic cipher, an innocent girl who never develops any depth of character.

Theater Review

The Old Curiosity Shop, adapted by Matthew Francis from the Charles Dickens novel, has performances at 7:30 p.m. today through Friday at the Palladium Theater. Tickets are $4 and $8. Call (813) 974-2323.