Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! �‪�‬ Dominic Gerrard

This Friday 17th May listeners can join an online symposium Charles Dickens: Beyond Realism ...  hosted by the Centre For Nineteenth Century Studies & Dr. Céleste Callen

The link to register is here:
https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=i9hQcmhLKUW-RNWaLYpvlGP-wSu2R1JFpVjsNyCAKKVURjI2MkFVUDRGNDBBODBEVEQ4RzNUV1RaOS4u

Chair and Guest Speakers include:
Kirsten Mills
Emily Vincent
John Bowen
Jonathan Wild
Céleste Callen
Lara Virrey
Chris Louttit
Amy Coles
Claire Wood
Amy Waterson
Andrew Smith
Madeline Potter

There will also be opportunities for an online Q&A after each talk!
Support the Show.
If you like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

Dominic is joined by the inimitable Emily Howes, author of The Painters Daughters, who is currently writing her second book, Mrs Dickens,  all about the life of Catherine Hogarth and her marriage to Charles Dickens … 


Emily is an alumna of Cambridge University, where she was a member of the famous Footlights. After gaining a First in English, she studied Lecoq at the London School of Performing Arts. She then went on to create work for theatre, radio and television. Highlights including two series of her show The Ladies BBC Radio 4, and performing in Tim Minchin’s Rocking On for BBC Radio 2. Emily is also a recipient of the Hans Cohn Scholarship for the study of existential pyscotherapy …


Support the Show.
If you like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

Dominic meets Ben Power backstage at London’s National Theatre who takes a break from rehearsals to talk about London Tide  - an exciting new staging of Our Mutual Friend -  which he has adapted with songs composed by the award-winning PJ Harvey

Ben is a Tony Award winning, and a BAFTA & Olivier Award nominated writer for stage and screen, and an Associate here at the National. His adaptation of The Lehman Trilogy, directed by Sam Mendes, has become an international theatrical juggernaut, playing in London, New York, San Francisco and Sydney. His screen credits include the BBC series The Hollow Crown and Netflix’s Munich: The Edge of War …


London Tide runs from 10th April - 22nd June 2024. You can book tickets here



Support the Show.
If you like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

A new series of Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! 🔥 will launch on Friday 5th April ...

The first episode takes place deep inside London’s Royal National Theatre, mid-rehearsal, for London Tide - an exciting new adaptation of Our Mutual Friend, co-written by Ben Power and PJ Harvey.



Previous series guests include: Stephen Fry, Miriam Margolyes, Armando Iannucci, Lucinda Hawksley, Andrew Davies, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Alice Loxton, John Mullan and many many more …


Support the Show.
If you like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

Our final festive extract comes from Dickens’ last Christmas Book The Haunted Man and The Ghost’s Bargain  - read today by the fantastic actor Tom Andrews

Tom’s screen credits include: This England (for Revolution films & Sky Atlantic), Netflix’s The Strays, Feelgood & Afterlife; HBO’S I Hate Susie and the BBC’s Show Trial … His stage work includes the Royal National Theatre production of Major Barbara and The Accidental Death of an Anarchist in London’s West End
In the following scene Dr Redlaw - a celebrated chemist and teacher - is sitting down to dinner one Christmas. He is full of grief and feels that each passing year only seems add to the store of regrets and painful memories …
Meanwhile the Swidger family: William,  Millie, and the elderly Philip, visit Redlaw and gently try to cheer him …
Support the Show.
If you like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

Happy 6th Day of Christmas! Today’s guest is the wonderful Rebecca Tanwen reading for us the opening pages of Dickens’ 4th Christmas book The Battle of Life …
The story opens with a wide shot of an ancient battle ground, where the traces of the fight have lingered through the centuries, not only in the earth but in the minds of the generations that have lived afterwards. The narrative works its way through a kind of time-lapse describing the changing seasons over many decades before settling on an orchard where amongst the apple-pickers two sisters - Grace & Marion - are found dancing along to a harp and fiddle with total abandon …

As a voice artist Rebecca won this year’s One Voice Award and previously the BBC’s Carleton Hobbs. Her theatre credits include Royal National Theatre production of Othello, As You Like It for the Oxford Shakespeare Company and Elephant 21 at the Royal Court. Her screen credits include The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime and Lionsgate’s Nacho XXL ...
Support the Show.
If you like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!