Bleak Expectations – Criterion Theatre, London

Writer: Mark Evans

Director: Caroline Leslie

Based on the undeniably charming BBC Radio 4 comedy series of the same name, Bleak Expectations stretches the familiar characters and Victorian melodrama format to take it out from behind the microphones and onto the big stage. It arrives in London after a debut at Newbury’s Watermill Theatre this time last year with a slate of top-notch talent scheduled to guest-star as the narrator Sir Philip Bin (including former cast members like Tom Allen).

So far, so exciting for fans of the original show and writer Mark Evans, and for anyone hoping to catch a performance with a genuinely interesting celebrity guest. However, the expansion from a tight, self-contained 30-minute radio production to a two-hour stage play creates a host of issues that are like a pea-soup fog obscuring the few moments of excellence.

Dickensian in vibe, rather than quality, the story concerns the early life of Sir Philip Bin (played by Sally Phillips on press night, but will be taken on by other guests through the run). Sir Philip narrates to us his father’s untimely death by penguin, his escape from his cruel boarding school, his fortune-making invention of the bin, a revenge plot from his father’s old business partner, and his convoluted quest for love.

Gags are delivered to the audience at rapid-fire pace, some decent, some like the results of a free-association writing exercise. The effort put in here to be wacky, silly, madcap etc. is exhausting. Their battering of the audience with the never-ending use of the deeply irritating made up word “Harumble” (to be used instead of “hurrah”) is so grating as to almost be an act of contempt, and we’re treated to lowest-common-denominator bits about men not asking for directions and cringy, tired and misplaced references to the French.

Some of the jokes do hit well (particularly some fourth- wall breaking asides), and some miss so much it raises a question if there was a joke written in the process that didn’t make the final edit? Sections are dragged out, the narrative spread thinly over several minutes without much content other than these gags. We spend an age in Pip’s secondary school, for example, with little evolution from the point made that it was tough and the Head wants to harm the boys.

Bringing this all to life are a selection of energetic, engaging and charismatic performances. As young Pip, Dom Hodson is the focus of the full show and carries it off with aplomb. Shane David-Joseph takes on a few roles, such as the father, with bounce, drawing all eyes to him as soon as he steps from the wings. Serena Manteghi as Pippa Bin (Philip’s sister) displays a gift for comic timing and as the villain John Hopkins is exactly what we want from a cartoonish dastardly baddie. Philipps as the celebrity narrator is funny, but it’s difficult to engage with someone so reliant on reading the script on stage. They’re all housed in a delightful and dynamic set designed by Katie Lias.

It’s hard to see who this is for. For fans of the radio programme it will exhaust them to have the same energy as the broadcast show sloshed around for two hours (and interval), removing the snappiness and pace that made it a success originally. For anyone else who doesn’t share the producers’ particular sense of undercooked Pythonesque surrealist humour there’s little care taken to build attractive and interesting characters, a plot to engage with or attempt to provoke anything more than a quick laugh. It does, in fairness, make some well placed and incisive jibes about sexism and the unfairness of the Victorian age, but even these are sometimes ahistorical (there were quite a lot of successful women-owned businesses in 1800s England, with some researchers suggesting the same figure for today is actually lower).

The performances lift a tired and shtick-filled script but likely by nowhere near enough to satisfy an audience paying West End seat prices for a show with a big celebrity name.

Runs until 3 September 2023