$9 General Admission
$7 Students w/ ID

Sponsored by The Midwest Victorian Studies Association & Indiana University

He was, they said, “Inimitable”—the greatest genius of the English language after Shakespeare, whose works (said even his rivals) were a “gift” to humankind.  Tonight we celebrate the gift of Dickens’s birth, 200 years ago, in the Charles Dickens Bicentennial Celebration, bringing together an inimitable roster of local and international performers and little-seen and –heard Dickensian treasures: Dr. Philip Carli, world-famous silent film pianist and composer, accompanying both rare archival Dickens film shorts and select luminaries of the IU Opera School in a unique reconstruction of Dickens’s opera of 1836, The Village Coquettes, directed by Alison Mero; Cardinal Stage star Ken Farrell, undertaking the dramatic challenge of performing the hard-hitting public reading with which Dickens “electrified” his audiences in 1868, “Sikes and Nancy”; young Nicholas Imscher as little Charlie, singing the comic Victorian favorite (which—warning—begs for a sing-along), “The Cat’s Meat Man”; the irrepressible Robert Hay-Smith, reprising his star performance as Fagin, and “Reviewing the Situation”; show producers David “Limelight” Francis and “Professor” Joss Marsh at the magnificent tri-unnial Magic lantern (seen here all-too-briefly in May 2010), with slides that inspired Dickens’s imagination, and the timeless, luminous story that resulted, A Christmas Carol; and much, much more.  This is a show for everyone who has every enjoyed a page of the “Inimitable” Dickens—and a surprise for all those who haven’t … yet.  Come enjoy, come celebrate.