Showing results for "Charles Dickens" in Audio Performances & Dramatizations

The youngest child of debtor William Dorrit, Amy is born in Marshalsea prison. She and her father are befriended by Arthur Clennam, whose mother employs "little Dorrit" as a seamstress. The fortunes of the Dorrits undergo an extreme change when William inherits a fortune, and the family move to Italy. Back in England, Arthur Clennam finds himself the victim of a massive fraud and ends up in Marshalsea. There he is found by Little Dorrit, whose fortune has had no effect on her generosity and humility.

Theatre Royal. The very name summons up something of grandeur and eloquence. And it was. Hosted by Laurence Olivier, these big-name productions also included the creme de la creme of acting talents from John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Orson Welles to Trevor Howard, Michael Redgrave and Olivier himself. They were based on works by the world's leading authors, among them Charles Dickens, Henry James, Oscar Wilde and Anton Chekhov. These are but a few of whose company we shall be keeping as we raise the curtain on our first instalment of theatrical history.

Come and envision Old Jacob Marley appearing before his sinister old partner Scrooge to foretell of the things to happen which fate has set forward. Feel the presence of the ghosts as they take Scrooge one by one from the past to the future. Feel the warmth and the laughter and even the sorrow of Tiny Tim and the Crachit Family. Come listen and envision as the townspeople laugh without sorrow of the passing of Old Scrooge and the barter with the pawnbroker over the simplest things he left behind. Envision what happened to Scrooge as the last phantom shows him the things of yet to come.

On December 27th, 1853, Charles Dickens ventured on something quite new: he gave, in Birmingham, a public performance of one of his own stories. This turned out to be an historic occasion, opening up an extraordinary second career for the great writer. Here, actor and playwright Emlyn Williams successfully recreates those performances as he plays Charles Dickens performing scenes from his novels.