Bleak Expectations: NHB Modern Plays

The story Charles Dickens might have written after drinking too much gin…

Follow half-orphan Pip's extraordinary exploits with sisters Pippa and Poppy and best friend Harry Biscuit, as they attempt to escape the calculating clutches of the dastardly Mr Gently Benevolent, defeat the hideous Hardthrasher siblings, and deflect disaster at every turn! Will evil be vanquished by virtue? Can love triumph over hate?

Bleak Expectations is a hilarious, chaotic caper, featuring dastardly villains, preposterous names, pulse-quickening romances, heart-rending death scenes, and definitely, probably, hopefully a happy ending.

Based on the award-winning BBC Radio 4 series, the play opened at The Watermill Theatre, Newbury, in 2022. It transferred to the Criterion Theatre in London's West End in 2023, where it featured a medley of many well-known actors and comedians.

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.