"Dickens in the light of the Magic Lantern"
is a theatre production by:

Information about the Dickens Theatre Laren

As a writer/dramatist Else Flim can express her passion for the combination of sound and vision  in the Dickens Theatre. She used to work as a producer in Dutch television and as editor in chief and director in radio and from 1985 as a novelist. During her Master studies Creative Development/ Dramaturgy (Utrecht University) she got involved in animation film and pre-cinema.

In 2010 Adrian Kok became a Dickens- and Magic Lantern Researcher in order to substantiate the content of the Dickens Theatre shows. He collects the information regarding Charles Dickens’ life and work (1812-1870).

Adrian Kok was as executive director Organisation in a multinational not only used to address large audiences, but he hosted international conferences as well.  It turned out that his vocalisation and performance were ideal for Dickens performances. Annet Duller, a renowned Magic Lantern expert, was his tutor in the world of the Magic Lantern and Victorian Lantern slides. Annet Duller trained Else as a lanternist.

Else did translate the English texts as used by Dickens himself in his Public Readings and when required - given existence of extra Lantern slides - she had to translate the original book texts as well.

Both are members of The Magic Lantern Society’s (MLS), an organisation of pre-cinema scholars and performers. In 2016 the Dickens Theatre did present the first part of their research in the influence of the magic lantern in the works of Charles Dickens at an international  convention of The Magic Lantern Society USA&Canada in New Orleans. Adrian and Else gave also a theatre performance. They won the Research Award for the convention’s best original scholarship on the magic lantern or related issues.

In 2019 Else made the translation of The Old Curiosity Shop, 715 pages. The Dickens Theatre presented a three hours marathon performance  with two breaks.

And in 2022 the Dickens Theatre did present the results of their research at the convention  of The Magic Lantern Society UK in Birmingham. They gave a theatre performance as well, with an 1869 welcome, an introduction by ‘Charles Dickens’ and a story from The Pickwick Papers. Their research was published in the MLS Magazine: The Magic Lantern.

Charles Dickens constantly improved his reading texts and so he was able to keep his enthusiasm for performing his Readings in monopolylogues.

For the stage adaptation Else mixed her views with the observations of reviewers as Kate Field and Charles Kent who were in the audience during  the original Dickens Readings.

The introductory parts provide insights in life and work of Charles Dickens. Thanks to international treasury hunts Adrian is succeeding again and again to enlarge the collection of Dickens’ Story Magic Lantern slides to expand the theatre repertoire.

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