Curiosity Shop, Friday 8th to Saturday 16th March, Exeter Northcott Theatre
Exeter-based Theatre Alibi return to the road in 2013 with a contemporary version of Charles Dickens’ Old Curiosity Shop opening at Exeter Northcott Theatre on 8 March and touring to Oxford, Southampton, Peterborough, Huddersfield and Basingstoke.
Curiosity Shop tells the story of Nell Trent, who lives with her grandfather in The Old Curiosity Shop, a vintage record store. When the shop is repossessed by Quilp, a vicious loan shark, Nell and Grandpa find themselves homeless.
Whilst living rough they meet con men, Good Samaritans, wide boys and buskers – in pubs, burger bars and doss houses across the length and breadth of England. This hugely enjoyable and moving story of human frailty, love and downright wickedness has a fabulous cast of characters – from bent lawyer Sally Brass to wide boy rapper Dick E Swiveller.
Playfully staged with huge projections of modern England and a soundtrack that ranges from Bach to Bowie, Presley to Professor Green, Theatre Alibi’s ambitious production shows our country to be as much a cultural curiosity shop as it ever was in Dickens’ day.
Created as a co-production with Exeter Northcott Theatre and Oxford Playhouse, Curiosity Shop is adapted by Daniel Jamieson, who has adapted previous successful Theatre Alibi productions including Spies, The Ministry of Fear and The Crowstarver.
Theatre Alibi are contemporary storytellers with an excellent reputation for distinctive new work that is visually and physically inventive. Past productions include Goucher’s War, The Ministry of Fear, Cobbo, Spies, The Crowstarver, Caught, One in a Million, Why the Whales Came, Shelf Life and Little White Lies.