Charles Dickens Reading and Musical Evening

As part of Dickens 2012 NI, Public Records NI will be hosting an evening of Victorian Times including music and readings from the works of Charles Dickens.
~ Wednesday, 22 February 2012

On 1 March 2012, the celebrated actor and writer, Sam McCready and Dickens 2012 Festival Director, Leon Litvack, will read from Little Dombey and Sikes and Nancy. Visitors to PRONI will also be treated to a performance of music and song by the Pickwick Players, complete in period costume.

The evening festivities will commence from 5.30pm with a performance by the Pickwick Players in the atrium. The readings by Sam McCready and Leon Litvack will then take place at 7.00pm in the Lecture Theatre. Both events are free, but bookings are essential for the readings by emailing proni@dcalni.gov.uk.

The Pickwick Players are a versatile troupe of instrumentalists and singers who have assembled to perform a varied programme of Victorian music during the Dickens bicentenary year. Its members are also involved in a wide range of other musical genres, from Bach to Gilbert & Sullivan, and from traditional music to swing.

Director of PRONI, Aileen McClintock said: “PRONI is especially pleased to host both the Pickwick Players and the readings by Sam McCready and Leon Litvack. PRONI not only will be hosting a celebration of the writer’s works, but we also hold a number of archives containing material relating to Charles Dickens and his family which will be exhibited at PRONI in Autumn 2012. Indeed, Belfast has its own relationship with Dickens, as it is a city which he visited three times – in 1858, 1867 and 1869. ”

Festival Director, Leon Litvack, said: “Dickens 2012 NI is delighted to be able to offer a unique evening of Victorian music and readings at PRONI. The programme will include songs and instrumental pieces that were well known to Dickens, performed by the Belfast Pickwick Players, as well as two Dickens readings, performed by Leon Litvack and Sam McCready, with contrasting moods, to demonstrate the sheer range of emotions which the author could conjure up in an audience. Visitors are sure to be delighted. As Dickens himself said, 'People must be amused!'”

Notes to editors:

1. The showcase will be held at PRONI, 2 Titanic Boulevard, BELFAST, BT3 9HQ.
2. Sam McCready is an internationally respected actor and writer. He had a close association with the Lyric Theatre before he emigrated to the US. He has acted and directed off-Broadway and in major theatres throughout the US and Europe. He will premiere his new work, Dickens at the Ulster Hall, here later this year.
3. Leon Litvack is Reader in Victorian Studies at Queen’s University Belfast. He is a world-renowned Dickens scholar, and a broadcaster on arts and culture for BBC Radio. He is a Trustee of the Charles Dickens Museum (London), and is the Festival Director of Dickens 2012 NI.
4. PRONI was established under the Public Records Act (NI) 1923 for the reception and preservation of public records. The 1923 Act also makes provision for the deposit of private records in PRONI.
5. PRONI has a number of archives relating to Charles Dickens and his family in the Dufferin Papers, D1071; the Campbell Allen Papers, D1558; Emerson Tennent Papers, D2922
6. PRONI’s records cover every aspect of life from the Minutes of Cabinet Meetings to records of a local corner shop – from the thoughts and actions of the ‘great and the good’ to the reminiscences of the working man. The oldest document is a Papal Bull dating from 1219.
7. Media enquiries to Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure Press Office, Tel: 028 9051 5045 or email: communications@dcalni.gov.uk