Bringing Great Expectations to the Southwick stage

SussexWorld

Richard Lindfield is both adapter and director as the Southwick Players take to the stage with Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (July 9-12, The Barn Theatre, Southwick).

Transcript

00:00good afternoon my name is phil hewitt group arts editor at sussex newspapers really lovely to speak

00:07again to richard linfield now goodness the pressure is on isn't it you are the adapter

00:11and the director for southwick plays production of great expectations correct to do this it's a

00:19book that means a great deal to you doesn't it it does i've i've loved it ever since i was a teenager

00:24and i've just read it over and over and over again and i thought it would make a great story to put on

00:31stage and i looked around there wasn't crazy about the adaptations that are available and so like the

00:39complete sort of egocentric idiot that i am i said i'll do it myself then absolutely i'll adapt it

00:47and this was about here is to have one pip who looks back then over the whole thing indeed well

00:52that's what the book does the book is pip looking back at his life and commenting on his life and

00:58looking at the way he's behaving in his life and so we have one pip and we we join the story right

01:04towards the end of the book uh when um he's uh delirious he's in bed he's got a temperature he's

01:14delirious and at that point that seemed to me a good point for him to start looking back at his life

01:19um and it'll start with all voices shouting at his head suddenly magwitch grabs it drags him down

01:27the front and that's the start and he and the uh the adult uh lewis todd hunter who's uh late 30s

01:36he plays pip as a 10 year old 12 year old 15 year old everything yeah oh sounds great but the challenge

01:42is you've not only adapted it you are directing it as well what's it like to direct your adaptation

01:48you've got no one to blame have you well no i tell you one of the things that's very difficult is to

01:53stop fiddling i'm forever coming home and think oh just rewrite that bit and so the actors bless them

02:00they've got bits of paper glued here and stapled there and yeah and they dread in the morning getting

02:08a whatsapp message from me just this is a new bit stick this in so really when it reaches the

02:15stage clearly it's going to be a massive world isn't it that you're evoking that you're putting

02:19in front of us is it just a really good story or there are lots of messages in there is there

02:25lots of relevance for us today or do we just enjoy the romp i think pip and pip's story uh and the way

02:35he lives his life uh it's really talks to us about the ability of money and status to corrupt

02:44because he's an innocent at the beginning he's an innocent and by the end he's being corrupted

02:50uh and he eventually sees the arrow of his ways as he looks back on his life but a lot of his life

02:57he's actually quite unpleasant and but there are and he he's compared with herbert his his best friend

03:05and herbert is everything that is pure and the same with biddy uh one of the women back in the

03:15village everything that's pure joe his stepfather again everything that's pure and when you contrast

03:21pit with these people uh it doesn't show him in a great light and he wrecked but he recognizes at

03:28one point he says my life is beautiful sounds like it's going to be very powerful it's on the stage

03:35from july the 9th to the 12th good luck with it it sounds brilliant i do apologize

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