Together, we’ll watch and discuss The Royal Shakespeare Company production of David Edgar’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. We’ll watch the nine-hour 1982 BBC recording of the stage play by the RSC at The Old Vic in London in two-hour segments.

Nicholas Nickleby is Charles Dickens’s third novel. The story first appeared in monthly parts, after which it was issued in one volume. It provides a social profile of mid 19th-century London and Yorkshire, highlighting the injustices of the time through memorable characters.

The RSC production features many roles, many of them played by the same actor within the production. It’s fun to watch a jolly Yorkshire squire and a conniving English nobleman be portrayed by the same actor. Likewise, another actor portrays a coarse young Yorkshire girl, a winsome actress in a traveling troupe, and a furtive crone. When I saw the live 1981 production in New York City, I dreaded facing 8 ½ hours in a theater. At the last hour, I didn’t want the play to stop! The New York production won the 1982 Tony Awards: Best Play; Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Roger Rees in the role of Nicholas Nickleby and the 1982 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play.