Sketches of Boz - Drama Blog 17 - March 2023

Actors from Years 7 & 8 explored the life and specially chosen novels of Charles Dickens in their latest production.  Another original piece, this time by Charles Dickens and Judy Seall with traditional songs from the Victorian Music Hall era.  As usual the Company put in a huge amount of effort in order to make the production look effortless.  And according to one member of the audience it was a ‘triumph’.

At the heart of Dickens’ writing is this massive compassion for the ordinary individual and his fight against the injustices he came across every day.   Jo, the crossing Sweeper, from Bleak House, is one such character who is homeless and lives on the pittance he gets from sweeping away the manure from the street.  Dickens was highlighting a social problem, but he was also trying to move us, and, being Dickens, he lays it on thick.  Homely filth begrimes him, homely parasites devour him, homely sores are in him, homely rags are on him; native ignorance, the growth of English soil and climate, sinks his immortal nature lower than the beasts that perish.

He raised huge amounts of money for a variety of good causes, such as Great Ormond Street Hospital and Urania House for fallen women; he sat on juries and was never afraid to speak up for the individual if he believed an injustice had occurred.

Dickens was a man of tremendous energy, who always took on far more than he should have done.  He meant to make the world a better place. Perhaps though it was at great personal cost to his family, in particular, his wife, Catherine.

His novels are peopled with the unforgettable characters he met, such as Ebenezer Scrooge, even the name has the potential to make you shiver, or Sissy Jupe, the daughter of a circus clown, who embodies the virtues of imagination and will eventually use it as a force to gently wear down Mr Gradgrind and topple the wonderfully named Mr M’Choakumchild and transform the fact factory into a real school.

Dickens’ stories grab you and won’t let go of you easily - they are so charged with imaginative energy that you can reach out and touch 19th century England, full of truth, horror, indignation, laughter and sentimentality.  Many people feel that Dickens does indeed still speak for us today; I wonder if this Company feels the same?

Thank you to Claire Smith for the amazing pictures.