by Leon Rubin, 1981
This is more than simply the book of the play of book. Leon Rubin, who was assistant director to Trevor Nunn and John Caird on Nicholas Nickelby, has written a surprisingly un-celebratory account of the progress of the production, skilfully combining comment and anecdote into clear narrative.
Rubin emphasises that the production’s unique problems were inseparable from its unique scale, and points to the difficulties of even conceiving of (let alone controlling) any project so large, especially when it is made up as it goes along, and when everyone is entitled to have his say. Even the “gang of four” – Nunn, Caird, David Edgar and Rubin – sometimes seemed like just too many chiefs, and Nunn is congratulated for occasionally abandoning “directing by committee” to make decisions alone.
Rubin well conveys that it was debilitatingly hard work, not magic, that ultimately dragged the play before an audience just a day too late. But he does allow one Hollywood success-story element to shine through – the surprise and delight felt by everyone involved when they discovered how much the audience loved the play. The evident joy of the cast in learning what all their hard work had been for was one of the most exhilarating elements of the early performances; recalling it can still bring a lump to the throat.
A retrospective account by the assistant director of the RSC adaptation of the Dickens novel which is thoroughgoing that it reads virtually like a day-book of the process like it transpired…it is a remarkable and valuable revelation of how a dynamic can be discovered by a company working outside its normal rules.
Through Mr. Rubin’s account of all this, one can feel the growing excitement which directors and actors must have experienced as they gradually discovered the “collective voice for telling a story”.
This is a book which anyone interested in the theatre would enjoy and which anyone connected with the theatre should read.
For those who were unlucky enough to have missed it, the book is some compensation, but it will also make them kick themselves harder. Lavishly illustrated. Fascinating and highly recommended both to students of the theatre and every theatre lover.