Bruce Arnold

Critic of Public Affairs, writing about art, theatre, music and politics

Fast and faithful to Dickens, but lacking zest

The Old Curiosity Shop, Gate Theatre, Dublin

The Old Curiosity Shop, the Gate's Christmas offering, has a stimulating narrative, though lacking the kind of zest a Christmas show needs.

It centres on the dastardly deeds of Quilp, played by Mark O'Regan, with altogether appropriate exaggeration of the criminal acts of this degenerate dwarf. And it rightly brought down on his head, at the final curtain, old-fashioned hisses and boos. Read More...