Nicholas Nickelby an unmistakable 19th century melodrama

When a production shifts from laidback rehearsals to the frenetic energy of opening, backstage antics become almost as much fun as the show on stage.

What the audience won’t see in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby are “more clothes flying than a nudist colony,” laughs guest director Brian Deedrick.

Studio Theatre’s latest production adapted from Charles Dickens’ sweeping Victorian-era saga opens tomorrow night at the University of Alberta Timms Centre for a 10-day run.

What’s unusual about this show is the12 graduating bachelor of fine arts students and four guest actors will be run off their feet playing about 100 characters.

And that means split second costume changes during this three-hour chronicle. Kyla Shinkewski, a fourth-year BFA student and St. Albert Catholic High School alumna, handles four parts, including that of Mrs. Nickleby. In the first act she has a lightning fast 30 seconds to step out of a voluminous mourning dress into that of serving girl Phib’s brown dress and apron.

While costumes flip backstage, Dickens’ trademark themes of greed, social injustice, child abuse and guilty secrets propel the action under the lights.

In this 19th century social satire, Nicholas, his mother and sister are left destitute after the patriarch dies. Uncle Ralph, their only relative and a ruthless businessman, has no desire to help poor relations and dislikes Nicholas on sight.

Sister Kate is forced to work long hours in a milliner’s shop while Nicholas finds work as a low-paid assistant with Wackford Squeers, a cruel man who runs a boys school with iron fists.

Nicholas rescues Smike, a young boy, from a beating, and together they escape on an adventure that includes a stint with a travelling troupe of actors before they return to London for a climax that unleashes a vortex of buried secrets.

Shinkewski’s heart goes out to Smike.

“Just the idea of someone who has never known a home or any kind of good life — somebody beaten and made a slave. Just the way Smike’s eyes light up when Nicholas helps him. There is a lot of evil in the world, but you can make a difference if you take the simple act of helping in the moment.”

In the 21st century, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is rarely mounted because of its length and complexity. Originally an eight-hour production, this dense and sweeping social canvas is now much shorter.

And Deedrick, artistic director of Edmonton Opera, is the ideal candidate to direct big meaty stories.

“Let’s be big and unabashedly big,” he declares. “It’s a 19th century kind of melodrama. It’s rich and noble with a heavy, evil character.”

“This is a family journey from darkness to light,” he adds. “They live life on a big scale. These people do big things instead of staring into their belly button and that’s what makes them so interesting.”