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The brilliance of Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope will be coming to entertain you at the Isle of Arts Festival.
One-man shows by Lloyd Lee and Edward Fox will bring to life the sparkling wit and humanity of these two giants of English literature on Saturday 16 April.
Lloyd Lee plays Dickens
He recreates the story-telling magic of the great Boz’s own one-man shows in Educating Charlie – Mr Dickens Looks Back, which takes us on a journey through Charles Dickens’ eventful boyhood. Some times mirthful, sometimes touching, sometimes sinister and always revealing, he conjures up the characters that were inspired by his early experiences.
You will meet that most charming and optimistic of couples, Mr and Mrs Wilkins Micawber and delight in the antics of strolling player and gentleman of fortune Mr Alfred Jingle. You will shudder at the avaricious Fagin in his den of thieves and be appalled by the notorious headmaster Mr Wackford Squeers. You will also smile with the witty and wise Mr Samuel Weller and warm to the benign Mr Samuel Pickwick and his compatriots in the Pickwick Club.
Edward Fox plays Trollope
He will be followed by one of Britain’s best-loved and most respected actors, Edward Fox, who will be providing a dramatic insight into Trollope’s life, portraying the great novelist through extracts from his best-known works interspersed with accounts from his autobiography.
In six of his novels, Anthony Trollope filled the imaginary county of Barsetshire with his colourful characters, from the Warden to Bishop Proudie, from the Bishop’s domineering wife to the diplomatic Mrs. Grantly, dealing with all sorts of conditions of men, but especially with the complexities, plots and counter-plots of the mid-nineteenth church. Humane, witty and above all, well-observed, Edward Fox (who came to fame with films such as The Day of the Jackal and TV series such as Edward and Mrs Simpson), brings to life many of these characters in a show devised and directed by Richard Digby Day.
And there’s more ….
The star-studied cast coming to Ventnor for the Isle of Arts festival includes Rich Hall, Barry Norman, the Hamsters and Digby Fairweather. More exciting acts will be announced over the coming days and weeks. You will be able to keep up with the latest Isle of Arts news and our behind-the-scenes festival blog at artsisle.org.
