A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens

A tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, deals with the major themes of duality, revolution, and resurrection. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times in London and Paris, as economic and political unrest lead to the American and French Revolutions.

The main characters in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities — Doctor Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton — are all recalled to life, or resurrected, in different ways as turmoil erupts.

Edinburgh Theatre Arts present:

A Tale of Two Cities

In an adaptation by Matthew Francis

‘This moving and exciting adaptation of the story of Sydney Carton and Charles Damay, the English lawyer and French aristocrat caught up inextricably in the violence and bloodshed of the French Revolution, is played on a simple set, with numerous lighting changes and sound effects, minimal props and vivid stage images, making this an atmospheric, fast-moving and satisfyingly theatrical experience which is always true to the original’.

Original music composed for this adaptation by Mia Soteriou

The Story

The story begins in aristocratic France: obscene with privilege and poverty, disfigured by `the leprosy of unreality', governed by men like the Marquis de St Evremonde. He rapes a peasant girl who takes his fancy, and fatally wounds her brother when he dares to intervene. Dr Manette is summoned to attend the dying boy, but learns too much of what has happened. To secure his silence, Evremonde arranges for Manette's abduction and imprisonment in the Bastille - where he remains for eighteen years. Manette - now half mad - is at last released and reunited with his daughter Lucie, who brings him to London, where he gradually recovers his sanity.

Lucie falls in love with Charles Darnay, lately acquitted at the Old Bailey on a charge of treasonably helping the French Government, through the timely intervention of a wastrel barrister - Sydney Carton. Darnay's acquittal is assured when Carton discredits a key witness by pointing out the extraordinary similarity between himself and the accused. Can the witness's identification of Darnay be reliable?

Carton's unrequited love for Lucie survives her marriage to Darnay, who -on the morning of the wedding, little knowing Dr Manette's tragic history, tells him that he is in fact a nephew of the Marquis de St Evremonde, but that he left France and renounced his heritage in protest at the cruelty of the ancient regime.

During the terror that follows the revolution, Darnay goes to Paris to try and save a faithful servant from the revolutionary courts. He is himself arrested, tried and - despite the heroic intervention of Dr Manette -condemned to death. At the very last moment, however, he is rescued by Sydney Carton, who - because of his generous devotion to Lucie -substitutes himself for the condemned man, and takes his place on the scaffold. 

Cast includes:

David McCallum as Sydney Carton
Ed Ellis as Charles Darnay
Derek Marshall as Dr Manette
Verity Simpson as Lucie
Iain Kerr as Mr Lorry
Edith Peers as Miss Pross
Suzie Le Morvan as Mme Defarge
Stuart Mitchell as Defarge

And also:
Jean Anthony
Stefan Heumann
Steve Hutchison
Jason Moncrieff
John McLinden
Simon Peers
Hannah Roulston

Directed by John McLinden
Staging by David Gibson and Marc Summers
Lighting by Ian Cunningham
Costumes by Fran Morrice