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The story Charles Dickens might have written after drinking too much gin...
Follow half-orphan Pip Bin's remarkable adventures with sisters Pippa and Poppy and best friend Harry Biscuit, as they attempt to escape the scheming clutches of Mr Gently Benevolent and defeat the irrepressible Hardthrasher siblings. Can they avert disaster at every turn? Will evil be vanquished by virtue? Can love triumph over hate?
Mark Evans' play
Bleak Expectations is a hilarious, chaotic caper, featuring dastardly villains, preposterous names, pulse-quickening romances, heart-rending death scenes, and, of course, a happy ending.
Based on the award-winning BBC Radio 4 series, the play opened at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, in 2022, directed by Caroline Leslie.
It offers rich opportunities to amateur theatre companies looking for a gloriously daft Dickensian romp which will have their audiences joyfully transported and begging for more.
About the author
Mark Evans is a comedy writer, director and actor. He has written widely for television comedy shows including
The Jack Docherty Show,
That Mitchell and Webb Look,
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway,
Popetown and
The Late Edition. He wrote and acted in the popular BBC Radio 4 comedy series
Bleak Expectations, which ran from 2007 to 2012. It was adapted into a four-episode BBC TV series,
The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, premiered in 2011. His novel,
Bleak Expectations, based on the radio series, was published in 2012, and a stage adaptation was premiered in 2022.
Summary
Based on the award-winning BBC Radio 4 series, Bleak Expectations is a hilarious, chaotic caper, featuring dastardly villains, preposterous names, pulse-quickening romances, heart-rending death scenes, and, of course, a happy ending.
