2012 marks the bicentenary of Dickens’ birth, a writer who’s work continues to inspire contemporary writers, film and television adaptations, and artists the world over, with Helena Bonham Carter as Ms. Havisham in the latest incarnation of Great Expectations due out in November.
Callow has focused on a lesser-known aspect of Dickens’ creative life, in a bid to offer an alternative to the scores of autobiographies sure to be reissued in this bicentennial year, that of Dickens’ love for the stage.
A child entertainer from a very young age, Dickens wrote, staged and acted in countless theatre productions right up until his death.
His dramatic personality and adoration of the theatrical process shaped how he presented the characters, settings and plots in his darkly, humorous gothic stories.
Dickens loved to see his fans enjoying his work and felt the creative process was completed by presenting his stories first-hand to legions of adoring fans at public readings where he brought those, now iconic, characters to life with his dramatic skill.
Callow, a famously exuberant and flamboyant performer himself, (best known for his role as one half of the May-December gay couple in Four Weddings and a Funeral) explores how Dickens’ own personality, wit, love for performing and lust for attention transferred to the page, making his timeless stories and character spring to life for his readers, even 200 years on.
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