Great Expectations

Bristol Old Vic

4 Stars

Neil Bartlett's well established artistic credentials are further enhanced by this, his first return to Bristol since leaving the theatre school there in 1981, with a stylised and stylish adaptation and direction of Dickens's 1860 novel.

Bartlett has necessarily stripped down the plot, written in the first person, to the bare bones.

The episodes emerge from the blackness of an empty stage as an older Pip allows the memories of his younger days to haunt him.

Sounds and images develop and form around the adult Pip (Tom Canton), who seamlessly slips between his adult presence and his childhood persona.

The staged nature of his memories are emphasised by Michael Vale's sparse set design utilising footlights, stage doors and mic stands in front of the proscenium arch while characters appear from behind floating doors in the dark stage space, suggesting the recesses of Pip's mind.

Timothy X Atack's sound design captures key echoes of the past, evoking the blacksmith's hammer and the file used to free the convict Magwych as well as driving many of Pip's memories such as the fatal fire at Miss Havisham's that dramatically opens Pip's narrative.

The characters are cast to emphasise the non-naturalistic and expressionistic nature of many memories, so Adjoa Andoh's youthful Miss Havisham is full of twisted bitterness as, in a faded wedding corset, she moves spider-like around the stunned Pip, while Miltos Yerolemou's rapid change from pompous Pumblechook to crotchety Sarah Pocket generates much amusement.

The cast, who adopt a multitude of roles, become a chorus of connected figures as they echo key phrases, reshape the stage picture and interact with Pip as the narrative drags them in.

Yet always at the heart of the story is the tall, isolated and rather melancholy figure of Tom Canton's Pip, who struggles to get to grips with his history through a wash of vivid memories.

Runs until November 2. Box office: (0117) 987-7877.

Simon Parsons