Great Expectations - Royal Exchange Theatre

Great Expectations at the Royal Exchange - photo by Ellie Kurttz

I WAS somewhat perplexed by the RET’s decision to open its new season with the stage version of a story which many of us, including myself, know backwards.

But Tanika Gupta’s adaptation of the classic Dickens tale, set in India as rumours of the country’s partition stir up civil unrest, was a theatrical experience I will never forget.

I was so wrong, spectacularly so.

Gupta has retained the themes of one of the greatest novels of all time, while inviting the audience to look at this epic and moving and ultimately uplifting tale through fresh eyes.

All the familiar characters are here from the disarmingly decent Pip, re-named Pipli here, to the unashamedly amoral lawyer Jaggers to Pipli’s hard working guardian Jagu Ganguly, or Joe in the original.

If Esh Alladi doesn’t win an award for his Pipli, a young man who grows up before our eyes there really is no justice out there. As his tormentor in chief Miss Havisham, Catherine Russell plays the role with just the right amount of vitriol and we feel for poor Pipli as the woman scorned gently taunts him with the seemingly unreachable in the shape of the enigmatic Estella, a study in aloofness.

Pooja Ghai, the production’s director, should also make space on his mantlepiece when they’re giving out the theatre gongs as this is one of those occasions when you forget you’re watching actors and totally immersing yourself in the action takes no effort at all.

I would like to say this Great Expectations is brilliant. In reality, it’s far better than that.

Until October 7. Tickets are available from 0161 833 9833 or www.royalexchange.co.uk.

Star rating - 5/5.