New look at Dickens’ Miss Havisham in Hastings

1825. After reliving traumatic memories from her childhood, a young woman, arrives in London. She is full of hope and ready to embrace a fresh start. However, she soon finds herself as the leading lady in drama she can’t comprehend. The gaslighting is subtle, the manipulation slick. Can Miss Havisham discern her fate? Or is she destined to relive the devastation of her trauma?

Written and performed by Heather Alexander, with direction and dramaturgy by Dominique Gerrard, Havisham will be at The Stables Theatre, Hastings on July 29 at 7.30pm. Tickets – adults: £13.50; under-18: £8.50; members: £8.50 at https://stablestheatre.co.uk/havisham/

Heather said: “Like a Victorian freak-show attraction, Miss Havisham never fails to attract ghoulishl intrigue. After watching David Lean’s 1946 film Great Expectations as a small child, I, like many others, was transfixed by Charles Dickens' indomitable monstrous female creation.

“As a 13-year-old girl, I performed The Mad Woman from Jane Eyre in the Character Dance section of Hastings Musical Festival. I danced en pointe, wore a ragged Victorian nightdress and had wildly backcombed hair. I tore up my veil in fury and glowered at the audience. It felt strange yet powerful and set me to wondering what could drive a woman to be labelled mad or deranged.

“I started to form the idea of writing Havisham from my hospital bed last year. I had been diagnosed with a serious medical condition and, not knowing how to sort out my emotional response, I channelled my energy into creating Miss Havisham’s story. I wanted to explore how a woman could become stuck in an endless loop of unresolved trauma. I wanted to know why she was so full of rage. Dickens provides few details. We know that she was cruelly jilted on the morning of her wedding and we know that she manipulated Pip to fall for a cruel-hearted Estella. We also learn that she is heartlessly conned by Compeyson. But this wasn’t enough. I wanted to recognise who the human being was behind the iconic, decaying remnants of her wedding feast. I wanted to know what chain of cumulative traumas it took to break this woman – without a first name – in an era before women had rights. What was the proverbial straw that finally broke the back of her sanity?

“It then struck me that, if you take away the gothic setting, Miss Havisham’s issues are familiar. Using contemporary parlance, Miss Havisham is a victim and instigator of abuse, coercive control and gaslighting. This led me to ask whether Miss Havisham was an unfortunate societal product of her time or were her woes and revenge tactics timeless? By providing an imaginative, yet plausible narrative and, in reframing her story, I seek to restore Miss Havisham’s humanity and open a dialogue around compassion. In deconstructing hostile stereotypical attitudes towards women past and present, my artistic intention is to raise awareness of our collective human frailty and champion the need for empathy in an increasingly ruthless and competitive narcissistic society.”

Edinburgh Fringe: Zoo Playground, Venue 186, August 13-27. Heather is an actress, writer, and producer with a long list of stage, television, and film credits. Recently she has been performing ROOM (an adaption of Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own) and Shirley Valentine to packed houses, and she is also the creative lead of Hastings Fringe Theatre Festival.