Theatre Alibi with Exeter Northcott & Oxford Playhouse

Curiosity Shop (2013)

Charles Dickens’ Old Curiosity Shop revisited. Adapted by Daniel Jamieson.

Nell Trent lives with her grandfather above the Curiosity Shop, a vintage record store.
When the shop is repossessed by Quilp, a malignant loan shark, Nell and Grandpa are forced to hit the road. Living rough they meet the usual suspects – con-men, Good Samaritans, wide boys and buskers – on the street, at a festival, in pubs and burger bars - in cities and villages across England.

Translated from Victorian times to the present day, Dickens’ story of love, human frailty and downright wickedness has a fabulous cast of characters, from bent lawyer Sally Brass to wide boy rapper Dick E. Swiveller. Playfully staged and incorporating film and a soundtrack that takes in hits from Elvis Presley to Professor Green, Curiosity Shop shows England to be as much a cultural curiosity shop as it ever was in Dickens’ day…

Contains some strong language.

Back to Past Productions