The idea of staging a big epic tale like David Copperfield – with its myriad characters and locations – in the Jermyn Street Theatre in central London might seem at first thought preposterous. Happily, the small but perfectly formed venue has a habit of making a success out of shows that are out of all proportion to its size, and it has managed to pull this neat trick once again.
Abigail Pickard Price’s production is a lot of fun, and, as sacrilegious as it may sound with the Old Vic and the National Theatre both staging lavishly budgeted perennials once again, I doubt there is a better Christmas show to be had in the capital. The venue always manages to make a virtue out of its intimacy: you get to see – barely a couple of feet away if you are in the front row – hugely gifted actors up close and personal.
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Luke Barton and Louise Beresford do a lot of the heavy lifting – they each have to lift about a dozen characters off the page of Dickens’ classic – and their good humour and spirit shines through as they effect a series of rapid costume changes and demonstrate a stupendous versatility as actors.
Eddy Payne in the title role holds it all together: he has the kind of innocence in his acting that Laurence Olivier so envied in Ralph Richardson and it cries out not just for an audience’s attention but also its affection. I loved every second of this show because it has a quality too often lacking in the big blockbusters – charm.
David Copperfield runs at the Jermyn Street Theatre in central London until December 2025
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