Charles Dickens's Great-Great-Great Grandson to Perform Ancestor's Famous Sikes and Nancy Scene

When Charles Dickens began his farewell tour of public performances in 1868 he decided to introduce the brutal Sikes and Nancy murder scene into his set list.

It proved immensely popular, but while Dickens revelled in its impact sometimes after performing it Dickens was unable to move , and notes from his doctors show that his pulse rate was at its highest after performing Sikes and Nancy compared with his other readings. Dickens’s final tour was cut short in April 1870 due to these concerns and he died two months later.

More than 150 years after Dickens’s final performances, actor Oliver Dickens - the great-great-great-grandson of Charles - will bring two of his ancestor’s most famous scenes to the stage in the building in which they were written, the author’s home at 48 Doughty Street which is now the Charles Dickens Museum. 

The show will open with Sikes and Nancy before lightening up with The Trial of Pickwick from The Pickwick Papers. Performances take place on May 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, and 23, two performances each day with tickets bookable from the museum's website.
 
“It is a great honour to be sharing scenes from two of my ancestor’s best-known works with the museum," said Oliver Dickens. "The intense chaos surrounding Nancy’s murder perfectly complements the farcical order of Pickwick’s trial and it is my privilege to share them with everyone."