CHAPEL HILL -- PlayMakers Repertory Company's status has been enhanced by the presence of artistic director Joseph Haj since his arrival in 2006, but its reputation now reaches the highest rank with the seven-hour, two-part production of "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby." It's a vastly entertaining and tremendously moving must-see event, a pinnacle in the company's history.
The achievement is even more impressive for being only the second production by an American company of the script originated by London's Royal Shakespeare Company in 1980. Although author and adaptor David Edgar has retooled his original eight-hour version, the current staging still takes 25 actors playing 150 parts to tell Dickens' universal tale of self-reliance, charity and love. Plot elements concerning stock market bubbles, predatory lending and mortgage foreclosures also make the production chillingly immediate.
Those who commit to the marvelous sweep and emotion of these two parts will come away deeply satisfied despite some flaws. The production loses steam in sections, some due to a lag in pacing or because of side plots that are debilitating in a play, but the overall achievement by playwright, directors, actors and crew can be recommended as a grand theatrical adventure.
Haj and co-director Tom Quaintance astutely array the actors over the vast reaches of McKay Coble's darkly industrial setting of alleyways, rooftops, bridges and stairwells. Tyler Micoleau's lighting creates dank streets and dingy offices as well as cozy rooms and lush countryside with mere changes of color.
Jan Chambers' costumes, from dirty ragamuffin to resplendent dandy, from modest housemaid to bejeweled matron, expertly establish period and character. Sound designer Sarah Pickett adds her own atmospheric music, playing an array of instruments from a perch over the action.
There's no weak link in the large cast, impressive in its quick changes and precise actions. Justin Adams invests Nicholas with an endearing innocence that changes into steely determination when all seems lost. His abiding love for his sister Kate (the quietly defiant Marianne Miller) is second only to that for sickly cripple Smike (Jason Powers in a heart-rending, career-defining portrayal). Scott Ripley makes one-eyed schoolmaster Squeers appropriately despicable yet perversely likable. Dede Corvinus pulls off an amazing trio of portraits, from lovable landlady to fearsome wife to grand actress, while Jeffrey Meanza and Jimmy Kieffer accomplish similar feats. Many fine actors not named here all deserve their own mini-reviews.
