Common Ground Theatre Company, Pat Whymark, Julian Harries

After their acclaimed touring productions of The Unhappy Medium & Phantom Bantam of The Opera in 2016, Common Ground return with this riotous, theatrically inventive adaptation,

"Little" Nell Trent lives with her devoted grandfather in his London shop, a magical place filled from wall to wall with dust-laden treasures. He keeps his nocturnal gambling a secret but becomes deeply in debt to the villainous loan shark Quilp. When he gambles away what little money they have, The Old Curiosity Shop is seized by Quilp as payment and Nell and her grandfather are forced to flee London. On the run, and with Quilp on their trail, the pair fall in with a succession of colourful characters, some friendly, some ominous. Over time, she becomes the parent and he the child, a burden which starts to take its toll on her.

The novel was a sensation when it was serialised in 1840-41. The excitement at the release of the last installment has been compared to the publishing of the last Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was so popular that New York readers stormed the wharf when the ship bearing the final instalment arrived in 1841.

In The Old Curiosity Shop, Dickens gave to the world some of his most enduring fictional characters, such as the almost demonic Daniel Quilp, the rakish but good-hearted Dick Swiveller and "The Marchioness".