Jack Maggs at Canberra Theatre Centre

Jack Maggs

5- 7 December 2024
Jack Maggs
By Samuel Adamson
Based on the novel by Peter Carey
You're a dead man if they find you.

Step back in time to 19th century London, where intrigue and mystery mix in Jack Maggs. Peter Carey's best-selling and Miles Franklin's Award-winning 'reworking' of Charles Dickens' canonical novel Great Expectations, Jack Maggs comes alive on stage in a sweeping new adaptation by South Australian playwright Samuel Adamson, renowned for his successes at England's National Theatre with Southwark Fair and The Light Princess with Tori Amos.

The story follows the enigmatic ex-convict Jack Maggs (Carey's version of Magwitch) returning to London from Australia and embarking on a relentless quest to find his 'son' Henry Phipps, who has mysteriously disappeared. Maggs soon becomes entangled in the web of Phipps' neighbour, Percy Buckle and his bizarre household, where he makes a deal with young novelist and 'mesmerist' Tobias Oates (or is it Charles Dickens himself?) to find Phipps. Oates has other plans though, and in Maggs, might just find the perfect inspiration for his new novel.

Unveil a world of ambition, secrets and unexpected alliances, with a cast of beloved and celebrated South Australian actors including Mark Saturno (The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?, A View from the Bridge) as Jack Maggs, James Smith (Euphoria, Girl From The North Country) as Tobias Oates, Jacqy Philips (Mr Burns, a Post-Electric Play), and recent NIDA graduate hotshot Ahunim Abebe.

Under the masterful direction of former Artistic Director, Geordie Brookman, Jack Maggs will take audiences on a strange and surprising slither around the Old Dart with a cavalcade of dazzling Dickensian characters all in search of the truth, in the most exciting page to stage adaption since The Dictionary of Lost Words.