Writer: Heather Alexander
Director: Dominique Gerrard
Spectral garments, empty of body or occasion are suspended in the gloom. A woman appears from the mist, shrouded in white tulle. She brushes away cobwebs and seems agitated, disturbed by the surrounding trousseau. Although time has stood still, a clock loudly ticks. Who else could this be but Miss Havisham, literature’s most famous jilted bride, pickled for all eternity by Charles Dickens in Great Expectations? And she’s back to tell her side of the story.
Heather Alexander, writer, and performer, narratively fills the gaps of this tragic and thwarted character with empathy and depth. Presented by Emul8 Theatre, we witness a kind of theatrical victimology, a tale of trauma, abuse, and exploitation that begs the question, who wouldn’t emerge bitter and twisted after all that? Baby Jane meets The Grand Guignol as we are transported via the magic of theatre to the early life and formative years of this demented spinster.
From a materially comfortable but emotionally starved childhood, little Miss. H has been motherless from a young age. Her life is filled with ecclesiastical menace, a drunken, distant father, “rampant neglect” and long empty days. In this startling and nuanced 80-minute minute performance, with a 15-minute interval, there is rape, a stillbirth and family shame. While the first half focuses on a sad childhood, the second half zones in on Havisham as an adult in London with well-heeled Auntie Clemmie: new horizons, an education, social circles, and a love interest. Dare she hope for happiness?
As Havisham attempts to navigate Victorian ideals of female innocence and corruption, good and bad, angels and devils, she carries guilt and shame. The coping mechanisms Havisham learns to survive are universal and human, not exclusive to the Victorian Gothic. She speaks for many victims when she notes what she has learnt: to hide, recede, detach, be silent, take up less space, not speak her truth, to un-be. “I learn to tread softly on the most delicate eggshells of the most fragile eggs.” An unexpected guide comes in the form of Medusa; this mythic snake-headed, furious female, also raped and cursed, teaches the value of resistance.
Director Dominique Gerrard chooses to update and modernise with a contemporary staging and lashings of French rap. While purists of Dickens, music, and Victorian Gothic may not appreciate the anachronistic approach, one can argue Miss Havisham has been ossified long enough. The intimate venue of Brockley Jack is stuffed to the gills last on press night and the audience certainly seems to appreciate the play. Havisham first appeared at the Brighton Fringe in 2023, and after two years of performing this role, Alexander has moved beyond embodiment into full-blown possession. This atmospheric, entertaining, and moving production will not disappoint.
Runs until 15 March 2025
