Interview with the playwright and director Neil Sullivan

Adapting Dickens is not to be entered into lightly. I caught up with the man behind the script to find out his motivation for this production and how he approached the mammoth task of condensing epic Dickens into a workable piece of theatre.

Why Dickens and why Great Expectations?

The Company has a reputation for lively and energetic productions, and for creating very vibrant characters. So whilst I was reading Bleak House, back in the Summer of 2004, it occurred to me how well suited the Company would be to bringing a Dickens novel to life – an author well known for creating larger than life, yet fully believable, characters. That led me to wonder which book we should consider. Wonderful though Bleak House is, it would take an ongoing TV series to do justice to its plot (little did I know, back then!) Great Expectations struck me as the most natural choice, having a much more linear narrative, with one central character taking us through the story. It is also one of his best known novels, and deservedly so.

How did you approach writing the adaptation?

I found writing the adaptation to be a great challenge: to take a 400 page novel, with a fairly intricate plot and interwoven cast of characters, and turn it into a riveting evening of theatre, was no small task. My guiding principle was to keep the script as close to the book as possible and to leave no footprints of my own. I had to ask myself a number of important questions… Which characters should be included? Which plot strands could be dropped? Once I started looking at the book from the point of view of Pip’s story of social longing, it became clear which elements were central to the narrative and which could be seamlessly trimmed. So whilst some characters fell by the wayside, other characters and plot strands came to the fore. On the other hand, some characters are kept in just because they’re so much fun, so the Aged Parent remains!

How long did it take to write?

The first draft of the adaptation began life in March 2005, and was written over a period of a few months. Surprisingly, there were very few changes from the first draft to the final script – all the hard work on that initial draft must have paid off!

Were there any events in the novel that you felt could not successfully transfer to the stage?

There were three scenes which I thought might pose a problem, but these were all overcome. Some were slightly rewritten to enable them to be staged, whilst others were left unchanged and entrusted to our brilliant technical team! The ending, in particular, took a great deal of thought, finishing as it does with a denouement set eleven years later. ‘Eleven years later’ is a difficult thing to get across on stage, and also a little unsatisfying when you’re caught up in the flow of the story; so I wanted to let that scene play out in the immediate aftermath of the climax, without changing the tone of it.

Who is your favourite character in Great Expectations and why?

If I had to choose, my favourite character would be Biddy. She is a young woman, wise beyond her years, who knows Pip better than he does himself. Whilst she doesn’t take a big part in the story’s events, she is essential to the heart of the story.

Do you think there is a message or moral in Great Expectations?

The moral is simply that friendship, loyalty, and conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and class. Pip aspires to be one of the upper classes, but through characters like Bentley Drummle he realises that social superiority and moral superiority are far from the same thing!

Laura McDonnell - Publicity Secretary