Bleak Expectations

Cast: 3-5f 6-9m plus optional extras

Staging: Multiple locations (can be simply staged - the more ingenuity, the better!)

Amateur rights performance fee: £85 per performance (plus VAT where applicable)

Paperback, 104 pages ISBN: 9781839042447Publication Date:
18 May 2023
Size: 198mm x 129mm£10.99 £8.79You save £2.20 (20%)
A4 Spiral-bound, 208 pages ISBN: 9781839043406Publication Date:
18 May 2023
Size: 297mm x 210mm£14.99 £11.99You save £3.00 (20%)
Ebook, 104 pages ISBN: 9781788506915Publication Date:
18 May 2023
£10.99 £8.79You save £2.20 (20%)
First Staged:
Watermill Theatre, Newbury, 2022

Bleak Expectations

By Mark Evans

Paperback £10.99£8.79

There is limited availability of this title. Please enquire before placing your order.

A4 Spiral-bound £14.99£11.99

Ebook £10.99£8.79

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?

Mark Evans' stage play 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, directed by Caroline Leslie. 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.


Nick Hern Books - A4Edition_webdescriptionbanner_600x100.jpg

This play is also available as an A4 Edition. With spiral binding, a larger print size and additional space for notes, this format is ideal for directors, stage managers, actors and others to use in rehearsal and production.

To order, simply select the 'A4 Spiral-bound' option above. Please note A4 Editions are only available for delivery within the UK.

Press Quotes

'Dickens with a dash of Monty Python... nimbly combines period detail with a sense of the absurd... immaculately polished puns and in-jokes'

The Times

'A fast-paced comedy mashup that sends up Britishness with oodles of silliness... zings with intelligence, imagination and comic anarchy'

Guardian

'Cheek-achingly funny... a ceaseless stream of quick one-liners that delivers laugh after laugh of pure entertainment... a great night out'

Broadway World

'A gloriously comic mash-up... hurrah, huzzah and harrumble!'

WhatsOnStage

'Witty, hilarious... filled with so much fun and comic cleverness with tongue-in-cheek humour and many in-jokes... sparkles with inventiveness'

British Theatre Guide

'English eccentricity at its madcap best'

Telegraph

'Joyously silly... a ridiculous pantomime for grown-ups – and the barely grown-up... Mark Evans gets the Dickens parody bang on... a fun, vivacious and uncomplicated romp'

Chortle

Cast: 3-5f 6-9m plus optional extras

Staging:Multiple locations (can be simply staged - the more ingenuity, the better!)

Amateur rights performance fee: £85 per performance (plus VAT where applicable)

Paperback,104 pages ISBN: 9781839042447Publication Date:
18 May 2023
Size: 198mm x 129mm£10.99 £8.79You save £2.20 (20%)
A4 Spiral-bound,208 pages ISBN: 9781839043406Publication Date:
18 May 2023
Size: 297mm x 210mm£14.99 £11.99You save £3.00 (20%)
Ebook,104 pages ISBN: 9781788506915Publication Date:
18 May 2023
£10.99 £8.79You save £2.20 (20%)
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