THE minutiae of detail in Charles Dickens' great swathe of a novel, Great Expectations, cannot be expected to be contained in a stage adaptation.

However in the latest production at Malvern Theatres, the Unicorn Theatre company seemed to be trying to include too much.

In their adaptation for children, the galloping pace only served to make Pip's passage from poor orphan to rich gentleman more complex than it needed to be.

During the first half, my five-year-old companion certainly hadn't got an inkling what was going on but gave the sense that he looked at the performance as a series of abstract movements.

Indeed had I not read and studied the book, and seen the films, I don't think I would have known what was going on.

The use of just one stage set throughout and minimal props only served to blur the edges further and the production's darkness gave the sense of the action taking place a long way off.

However, in the second half, the cast led by an admirable Antony Eden as Pip, retrieved the plot from confusion to give a sense of the human drama as the truth unravels and Pip's world falls apart.

The production continues until tomorrow (Saturday) with shows at 2pm and 6pm.

Ally Hardy.