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Mystery solved? Warehouse Theatre tackles Dickens
If I died in the middle of writing this article, then I dare say my colleagues would wipe away the tears, hitch up the black armbands and finish it off. Even Mr Mozart wasn't above posthumous creative extrapolation - his Requiem was completed by a colleague after he kicked the bucket mid-movement.
Charles Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood, however, has remained incomplete since his death in 1870. Surely something of a barrier to being put on a stage? Not so, because the Warehouse Theatre has been performing Mystery since December, to widespread critical acclaim.
The truncated ending has been embraced, in fact, by Rupert Holmes, Dickens' American representative, by giving the audience opportunites to choose the story's path. On three occasions, you can vote on, for example, who they believe has murdered Drood, and the purpose of a character whose role is never unravelled.
These forks in the narrative road lead to 128 different permutations in how the ultimate scenes go. Which is a triumph of intensive rehearsing.
Director Ted Craig says: "Edwin Drood is certainly a darker novel than most of DIckens' novels. It is more towards Great Expectations than Nicholas Nickelby. But the most fascinating this is that is never finished.
"There have been huge amounts of academic rows, so much written about it, people's theories on what would have happened, was Drood dead, and if so, who killed him?
"There is an obvious villain, John Jasper, the choirmaster, who is in love with Drood's fiancée, but he is a bit too obvious."
Many, including Ted, believe or hope that Drood wasn't intended to be killed off, one of the reasons being that Dickens was a master of the twist, could the "mystery" in the title really just be a bog standard murder?
The last time Drood was staged in the UK was the 1987 West End musical starring Ernie "the unfunny one" Wise and diminutive scouser Lulu. It was so bad it made you wanna shout for the love of God, stop'. Shame, because the Broadway version - starring Cleo Laine - bagged five Tonys.
Fear not though, the national critics have had nothing but praise for Ted's show, and you have two weeks to discover why for yourself.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood; Warehouse Theatre, Dingwall Road, Croydon, CR0 2NF; until February 24, call 020 8681 1257 or visit warehousetheatre.co.uk for more details.
5:40pm Wednesday 30th January 2008
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