REVIEW: HAVISHAM by Heather Alexander at Jack Studio Theatre 11 – 15 March 2025

‘Excellence marred by inappropriate music’ ★★★ ½ 

This one woman show is a fine piece of writing and Heather Alexander’s acting is sensitively nuanced.

We first meet Miss Havisham, familiar as the deranged, jilted bride in Great Expectations (1861) as a child of four, motherless, frightened and fragile. Alexander then depicts her being beaten for wetting herself in church, growing up (the onset of menstruation is a bit hammy) and spending too much time alone. And there are experiences in her life which Dickens probably never dreamed of. It’s imaginative work. Ultimately she’s a very vulnerable young woman whose father shows her no love but leaves her the Satis estate in Kent on the marshes of the Hoo Peninsula when he dies. She blossoms and becomes more confident in London living with her aunt but then she meets James Compeyson and we all know where it’s going. 

Alexander is a talented actor, as convincing as a young child as she is as a suave conman. She communicates expressively with her face and fingers. And Havisham is a compelling piece of theatre in two short acts. The set is neat too – lots of white lace, stage smoke and it’s amazing what you can do with two orange boxes and a piece of sheeting.

The sound effects are strong but adding other voices feels like a cop out in a one person drama. Moreover the music is very odd. The folk songs are anachronistic because most people didn’t know them until they were discovered and popularised by Cecil Sharp and co in the early 20th century. A brass band would not have performed Seventeen Come Sunday in the 1860s. And why the repeated use of a Baroque concerto? The piece – presumably Hot Gossip because that’s where Alexander’s background lies – which accompanies tragic Miss Havisham’s final descent into disaster doesn’t add much either. If these choices are meant to make the piece feel timeless then they fall sadly flat.

Havisham is worth seeing, though, for at least two additional reasons. First, any one woman show is a welcome antidote to the large number of one man shows on offer and deserves to be supported. Second, back stories to familiar characters from well known literature are a fertile and very interesting concept.

Photographer: Peter Mould

HAVISHAM by Heather Alexander at Jack Studio Theatre 11 – 15 March 2025, presented by Emul8 Theatre

BOX OFFICE https://brockleyjack.co.uk/