CHARLES Dickens was only 24 years old when he started writing the first instalment of what is now known as The Pickwick Papers. Samuel Pickwick and his friends, failed lover Tracy Tupman, would-be sporting gent Nathaniel Winkle and nervy poet Augustus Snodgrass, set forth from London to discover life around England (Manchester was not mentioned). Once the wise, practical and worldly Sam Weller was introduced into the dramatis personae, Dickens’s reputation and future success were assured. The rest is Dickensian history.

This year, the Rain or Shine Theatre company is performing director Jonathan Legge’s adaptation of the classic stories at 56 venues around the country, and came to Upper Leigh Farm at East Knoyle to delight an eager and loyal audience on a wonderfully cool evening following another hot day.

The 17 -plus characters are played by five versatile and marvellously memorable actors in this energetic and hilarious production. With a few chairs, benches and props they create inns, a court room, various coaches, parlours, ballrooms and anterooms – and ubiquitous coconut shells set the pace for the horses. There is little time to draw breath as the members of the Pickwick Club travel from adventure to adventure, and there’s even a bit of audience participation as all are welcomed as new members – with voting rights.

Rain or Shine stalwarts Anthony Young and Pippa Meekings lead the adventures as the charmingly naive Samuel Pickwick and his “man” Sam Weller. The Pickwick Papers is usually recognised as a riotous comedy, but there’s a serious side. Dickens must have remembered his own time in the Marshalsea, and here we find poor Pickwick, standing on his dignity and imprisoned in The Fleet for a deliberately unpaid debt to Mrs Martha Bardell. Thanks to the ingenuity of Sam Weller, Pickwick learns from his experience and is freed.

Nicholas Taylor is a heart-rending Tupman, an argumentative cabbie, a bad poetess, a slimy lawyer and a bombastic barrister. Marshall Lockwood is the ineffectual Winkle, as well as very needy landlady Mrs Bardell and a friendly gaoler. Adam Wright recites rhymeless poems as Snodgrass, has fun as the braggart and baddie Mr Jingle, and another slimy lawyer and Mrs Clippings. Antony Young’s other character is the wonderfully angry military doctor, and Pippa Meekings is also a warmongering lieutenant and a wonderfully amorous, if fickle, Rachel Wardle.

It’s all great fun and, as the party sitting next to us exclaimed, “ a change from all that open air Shakespeare.” The tour continues until 30th August, and performances go ahead come rain or shine.

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