The title is a deliberate pun, referring
superficially to the atrocious command of English enjoyed by Hans
Christian Andersen when he stayed for five weeks in 1857 with Charles
Dickens and family at their Gad’s Hill home, but more thematically to
the goings-on he observed there... or rather, largely failed to
observe. In Sebastian Barry’s speculative drama, Andersen notices
scarcely any of the tensions arising from Dickens’ dictatorial attitude
towards his daughter Kate’s and son Walter’s futures and even the
lovelessness of his own marriage: shortly after Andersen’s actual
visit, Dickens separated from his wife Catherine, and indeed he is
shown in the play meeting for the first time his future love, the young
actress Ellen Ternan.
However, Barry’s title is also an unintentional misnomer. The one
current in the house which he is shown acknowledging to any real
extent, and even then without any knowledge as to its detail, is the
one which buffets housemaid Aggie, about to be dismissed from service
for falling pregnant (to Walter, although she never admits this). Aggie
is not one of Andersen’s English; she is Irish, like Barry. The
inclusion of an Irish dimension is certainly deliberate (the action is
also punctuated by renditions of a number of Moore’s Irish Melodies);
less so, I think, is the fact that in Barry’s text and Max
Stafford-Clark’s production Aggie, played brightly by Lisa Kerr,
emerges as the most rounded, human character of the lot.
Dickens himself, as presented by David Rintoul, is a figure of
conflicting passions and passionlessness; so was the historical
Dickens, but this does make it almost impossible to portray him
credibly in any naturalistic drama. Niamh Cusack as Catherine is a
watercolour saint, smiling through most of the vexations and
occasionally protesting politely even as her domestic place is
supplanted by her sister Georgie (Kathryn O’Reilly), scarcely a less
anodyne figure here. Lorna Stuart gets a few moments of backbone as
Kate, which amount to a few more than Alastair Mavor as Walter. And
through all this Danny Sapani as Andersen has the thankless task of
trying to suggest a character of passions for himself rather than
simply being the bumbling, inarticulate alien. It all amounts to a
fascinating subject treated far less than fascinatingly.
Written for the Financial
Times.