Charles Dickens's David Copperfield

One of Dickens’s best-loved and most autobiographical stories, brilliantly and faithfully dramatised, with all his marvellous creations of kindness and cruelty: Mr Micawber, Uriah Heep, Mrs Peggotty, Murdstone, Steerforth and Betsey Trotwood. Weaving through the colourful maze of the storyline is David’s hopeless infatuation with Emily - and eventual salvation in the arms of the long-suffering Agnes.

Alastair Cording’s stage adaptation skilfully concentrates on the essentials of the story while maintaining the colour, humour and drama of the book. Most notable is its fluidity, with each scene flowing into the next without the need for cumbersome scene changes - or much scenery at all. Performable by a cast of ten, if necessary, but equally offering good roles to thirty or more, the play was first staged and later revived by Eastern Angles at the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich.