Financial Times, 24 December 1994, by Sarah Hemming.
Revolution to redemption - Sarah Hemming admires a stage 
adaptation of 'A Tale of Two Cities'
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Best remembered by most of us for its opening and closing 
lines, Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" is a tricky novel to 
adapt, with its intricate storyline, constant shuttling 
between Paris and London and countless opportunities for 
sentimentality. It says much for Matthew Francis' fine, 
intelligent adaptation at Greenwich Theatre that it manages 
to embrace the scale, feel and thrust of the novel, and 
convey the sense of perpetual motion and of lives caught up 
in great events, while getting across (mostly) the 
complexities of the plot and bringing out the novel's 
fascinating themes of revolution, resurrection and 
redemption.

There are no tricks, no frills and no musical numbers: this 
is a straightforward telling, and the better for it. 
Occasionally it plods, but mostly it is wholly absorbing. 
Julian McGowan's versatile set of dark wooden staircases, 
doors and platforms lowers over the auditorium and is both 
atmospheric and practical. We move from the Old Bailey to a 
Paris tenement to the walk to the guillotine with just a 
switch of lighting, no fuss and no elaborate changing of 
scenes--which is invaluable in keeping the momentum going. 
Beneath the staircase, centre stage, a pair of double doors 
and casually placed wheels suggest the shape of a coach: a 
visual emblem of the constant journeying to and fro that is 
at the heart of the book.

The set also offers several platforms, an ingenious device 
which keeps the audience's eye moving round the stage and 
helps to overcome the fact that the novel is a different 
shape and has a very different impetus to a stage play. 
Francis' production, too, works hard to compensate for this, 
dramatising some scenes, reading some aloud, constantly 
moving and changing focus, to give the flavour of Dickens' 
original, as it see-saws between light and dark.

The production is carried along by Timothy Walker's 
excellent Sydney Carton. Hair hanging in his eyes, clothes 
never quite where they should be, he in convincingly 
dissolute but manages to stay the right side of self-
indulgence and makes sense of the characters disillusionment 
and final magnanimous act. And yes, he does speak those 
immortal last lines--and get away with it.

Julian Mitchell as Dr. Manette has a quiet, compelling 
gravitas (though he could with quaking less in moments of 
great emotion) and Eleanor Tremain is appealing as Lucie, 
one of Dickens' difficult, flawless heroines. Bernard Lloyd 
is particularly good in the rather thankless role of Mr. 
Jarvis Lorry, the amiable old banker who reunites the father 
and daughter--a masterful portrayal of decency and humanity; 
while Madame Defarge (Heather Tobias), the ruthless French 
revolutionary sashays round the stage with an impervious, 
self-righteous smile.

There are a few duff scenes--a rather lame staging of the 
French Revolution, for example--some heavy-handed sound 
effects, a few points where the pace drops and the 
production becomes solid, and the story could be clearer in 
places. Alexis Denisoff as Charles Darnay has little to go 
on, and makes very little of what he has (in the prison cell 
you would never believe he was a condemned man), while Susan 
Porrett wastes some of her comic opportunities as Miss 
Pross. But overall, this is an atmospheric, enjoyable 
production; not the best of adaptations, but far, better 
than many.



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