A thrilling, fast-paced adaptation of the classic novel, considered by Dickens 'the best story I have ever written'.
An epic story of love, sacrifice and redemption, interweaving one family's intensely personal drama with the terror and chaos of the French Revolution.
This version of A Tale of Two Cities premiered at Royal & Derngate, Northampton, in February 2014, featuring a large community ensemble alongside the main cast.
Mike Poulton's adaptation is ideal for any amateur theatre companies, schools or youth theatres looking to stage a bold and dramatic version of Dickens' classic.
'Gripping… has a cinematic quality… there isn't a dull moment'
— Telegraph
'Mike Poulton's adaptation is brilliant… ensures no-one unacquainted with the novel will be baffled'
— Observer
'Best of times, worst of times: Mike Poulton takes them both at a gallop in an adaptation that… builds up the terminal velocity of a political thriller'
— Guardian
'An atmospheric, appealing adaptation of a novel that remains relevant to our times'
— The Stage
Author Biography:
Mike Poulton is an award-winning dramatist whose many adaptations and translations for the stage include: Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl (Chichester Festival Theatre, 2024); Robert Harris's Imperium (Royal Shakespeare Company); The York Mystery Plays (directed by Philip Breen at York Minster); Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (directed by Jeremy Herrin for the Royal Shakespeare Company); Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities (directed by James Dacre at the Royal & Derngate, Northampton); Fortune's Fool (directed by Lucy Bailey at the Old Vic, London); Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (directed by Lucy Bailey at The Print Room, London); Schiller's Luise Miller (directed by Michael Grandage for the Donmar Warehouse, London); Anjin: The English Samurai (directed by Gregory Doran for Horipro in Tokyo); Malory's Morte d'Arthur (directed by Gregory Doran for the Royal Shakespeare Company); Schiller's Wallenstein (directed by Angus Jackson at Chichester Festival Theatre); Schiller's Mary Stuart (directed by Terry Hands at Clwyd Theatr Cymru); Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea (directed by Lucy Bailey at Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard (directed by Philip Franks at Chichester Festival Theatre, and Terry Hands at Clwyd Theatr Cymru); Ibsen's Rosmersholm (directed by Anthony Page at the Almeida Theatre, London); Strindberg's The Father (directed by Angus Jackson at Chichester); Myrmidons (directed by Simon Coury at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin); and a two-part adaptation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (directed by Gregory Doran for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and performed at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in the West End, and on tour of the US and Spain).
His acclaimed version of Schiller's Don Carlos premiered at the Sheffield Crucible in a production directed by Michael Grandage with Derek Jacobi as King Philip II of Spain. It has since been widely performed, including by Rough Magic Theatre Company in Dublin (directed by Lynne Parker), and at the Göteborgs Stadsteater (directed by Eva Bergman). Other productions include Ibsen's Hedda Gabler (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Liverpool Playhouse); Turgenev's Fortune's Fool (directed by Arthur Penn at the Music Box Theater, Broadway; nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play, and winner of seven major awards including the Tony Awards for Best Actor for Alan Bates and Best Featured Actor for Frank Langella); Uncle Vanya (directed by Michael Mayer at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, Broadway; with Derek Jacobi, Roger Rees and Laura Linney); Three Sisters (directed by Bill Bryden at the Birmingham Rep; with Charles Dance); Ghosts (Theatre Royal Plymouth); The Seagull, Three Sisters, The Dance of Death and an adaptation of Euripides' Ion (all directed by David Hunt at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester).
He was made an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2017.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English writer and social critic who is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. His major works include: The Pickwick Papers (1836), Oliver Twist (1837–9), Nicholas Nickleby (1838–9), A Christmas Carol (1843), Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–4), David Copperfield (1849–50), Bleak House (1852–3), Hard Times (1854), Little Dorrit (1855–7), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860–1), Our Mutual Friend (1864–5) and the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), as well as other novels, books and short stories. None of his major works has ever gone out of print.
