Review: Charles Dickens – The Hanged Man’s Bride, Fringe 2024

Written and performed by James Nicholas, who impressed me in Sherlock Holmes last year, The Hanged Man’s Bride is based on the short story by Charles Dickens.

It’s a one-person show with James playing all the characters, although the focus is on two or so.

We start with a man preparing to divorce his wife because, cruelly, she seems tired of looking after him and their children. He’s found a younger woman. The names suggest that our author and narrator is Charles Dickens himself, a man who tried to have his sane wife committed to an insane asylum.

I know. What a hero, right? Shame if he finds himself in a ghost story!

As a result, The Hanged Man’s Bride is a story within a story. We have got the narrative of Dickens’ own telling and the story he gets told.

I haven’t read the original, but my upsettingly weak Dickens lore at least proves that you don’t need to be well-read to enjoy the performance. 

Tone

It’s a ghost story, so expect some quiet lines of dialogue and some almost shouting – sometimes back to back.

Nicholas works his simple stage of three chairs and a travel case with gusto, striding around, sinking down or standing tall from a perch atop a chair.

The Hanged Man’s Bride is a psychological scare, not a splatter horror, but there is, as the name implies, some hanging and plenty of death. There’s torture, physical harm and murder.

Lots of men in it are all horribly anti-female and rubbish.

All this is told… politely. It is a Dickens piece, after all.

What to expect

Charles Dickens: The Hanged Man’s Bride is a one-man performance, but there are sound effects that were perfectly timed.

The costume helps and the long jacket comes off or goes back on again when different people are speaking. You don’t really need the visual cue, as James Nicholas easily brings different characters to life through accents and body language.

I don’t think you’ll find it scary. Modern audiences aren’t moved by trees tapping against windows. I think you might find it creepy, though, because it’s a well-told story. The difference is that the former commands your attention while the letter deserves it. 

Overall

I struggled in the heat of the room. James Nicholas must have been melting, but it’s an up-close and personal venue. James needed only to raise his voice or hurry over the stage to produce a jolt of energy for the audience.

The Hanged Man’s Bride is a story that relies on the theatre of the reader’s mind. As a short story we have to imagine the horrors in the inn. However, as a play, the theatre of the mind is challenged by physical theatre. I finished a big book of M.R. James ghost stories earlier this year, which have a similar tone and would lift my head from a passage and ponder. I couldn’t do that here. A victim of his own success, James Nicholas kept me in the here and now with his performance. 

I enjoyed Charles Dickens: The Hanged Man’s Bride, but I don’t think it lends itself strongly to the format. It was the acting that had my attention.

Don’t make this your first cautious experiment with one-man shows. However, if you’re already a fan or will lap up anything by Charles Dickens, then grab your tickets.