Bleak House on London's East End Stage,1853: George Dibdin Pitt and Dickens at the Royal Pavilion Theatre

Abstract

Theatrical adaptations of Bleak House can be split into two groups, those few that were produced just as Dickens was finishing the novel in 1853 and then the array that succeeded Dickens' death in 1870. Though some adaptations became popular, very few were published, and the plays that were produced in 1853 before Dickens finished writing the novel have not received much attention subsequently. A playwright for the Royal Pavilion Theatre in East London, George Dibdin Pitt, wrote the first adaptation of Bleak House. His version highlights working class participation in the narrative and shapes a critique of Dickens' middle-class activism. Dibdin Pitt disrupts Dickens' portrayal of the poor and working classes by putting these characters centre stage and insisting on their critical participation in Victorian culture.