Many of Charles Dickens novels — I am thinking “David Copperfield,” “Oliver Twist” and “A Christmas Carol” — are beloved for their clarity, unity and timeless accessibility. “A Tale of Two Cities” is not in that category.
That Dickensian creation has, for my money, the greatest opening sentence ever. And one worth thinking about right now:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insist on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
But, otherwise, the story, set in both London and Paris, in and around the French Revolution, is not the easiest to follow. Hence, perhaps, Brendan Pelsue’s new adaptation, first seen in Atlanta in 2024, now in its Chicago premiere at Shattered Globe Theatre and billed by the author as a “new riff” on “A Tale of Two Cities.”
The riff factor is considerable in a meta, self-aware kind of way, designed I think to emphasize the novel’s themes of social justice and draw out contemporary parallels. But this also suggests a certain insecurity with the complexities of the actual text: audiences aren’t dumb and can figure out that history repeats itself without being hammered with that truth. As one example, audiences are asked to take part in the show, providing crowd reactions according to real-time instructions from members of the cast. “Shock from the crowd, please,” is one example. This all sucks up time, especially when actors aren’t satisfied with the quality of the audience’s work.
There are some talented actors in director Mikael Burke’s Shattered Globe production, which features Demetra Dee, Daria Harper, Jazzma Pryor, Diego Vazquez Gomez, Glenn Obrero, Jeff Rodriguez, William Anthony Sebastian Rose II and Penelope Walker. And Burke is a creative and skilled director. But this show is just very slow, heavy going and, to be frank, the additional layers presented by the adaptation dispel rather than free up the narrative tension inherent in the Dickens novel. On the night I was there, heads were drooping.
I’ve seen some effective stage adaptions that take this kind of tack, where everyone makes clear they are actors doing an adaptation of something old and stodgy (at the Neo-Futurists, most notably) but this one proceeds with insufficient clarity and coherence. Stakes never rise. As a result, empathy is squelched and the work of one of history’s most compassionate novels is reduced to an alienating experience that does the opposite of draw you into the tale.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “The Tale of Two Cities” (2 stars)
When: Through May 31
Where: Shattered Globe at Theater Wit, 1229 Belmont Ave.
Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Tickets: $15-$52 at 773-975-8150 and sgtheatre.org
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