Recreating a Classic

How did you go about recreating such a well known classic?
NF: I’ve directed things before that are well known and iconic and I’ve always tried to approach them as if they were a new play. I just read the play or the novel and let my imagination start to do its work. That’s the only way you can do it otherwise you can easily get tied down by preconceptions.

What challenges have you overcome?
NF: I suppose the most important challenge is how you portray 1840s London and the extreme poverty and social and political climate of this time. That’s very important because that’s what Dickens was writing about, so in presenting his story you have to be truthful and honour all those things. You can achieve that in casting and in the world that you create imaginatively as a company. Then there are practical challenges, for example the play is written for 80 or 90 characters and we’re doing it with twelve actors so that’s a big practical challenge.