Theatre Review: The Dictionary of Lost Words

 The Play: The Dictionary of Lost Words

The Production: Sydney Theatre Company

The Theatre: The Playhouse at the Arts Centre

Stars: 4

Until 17 March

As with any play that’s been adapted from a book, you run the risk of either missing the point or not doing the book justice. In this case, the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words does a great job of presenting the book on stage. Admittedly, I liked the book, but did not love it, for stylistic reasons. I loved the story. I mean, set in Oxford, about the Oxford English Dictionary – a staple for any English Lit. student. Esme Nicholl is the precocious daughter of one of the dictionary’s compilers, hanging out at the ‘scrippy’ from a young child. 

The play follows Esme’s life from the age of four, to her life as a married woman. Over the years, we see her life, the words she collects from the scriptorium, her relationships, her family, and the world events surrounding her life in Oxford. 

If you've read the book, you'll get a lot out of this. It's very true to the book. If you haven't, no drama. You're just going to be told a wonderful story about a girl, her relationship to words, and a mammoth task that they undertook from the late 1800's where they began to document the English Language. 

There is a lot to love about the production. It's not a cerebral play, but it is fascinating. Where the whole premise is quite simple, the staging is inventive, making brilliant use of the split stage - a downstairs back wall made to look like the pigeonholes of the scriptorium, the upstairs area used as anything from a towpath to a bedroom, to street scenes. It made for easy transitions. Making this even better was the use of an overhead projector (remember those) which the actors manipulated from a desk central stage to great effect. Sure, it doesn't have the clout of production like The Picture of Dorian Gray, but this

My theatre buddy loved this, having not read the book. She passed a comment that it was wonderful to see something which isn't full of sex, drugs and violence. Sure, there's a little bit of swearing, in context, which brings out some delightful moments of humour. 

For me, who likes the book, this proves a great representation of the story. Jessica Arthur's direction is on point, and James Oxlade's set is incredibly inventive. 

Another thing I loved was the open captioning at each side of the stage, allowing everybody to read the script as well as see the action. This accessibility was really appreciated. It's a bit like watching television with the captions on. 

What also interested me was the crowd demographic, which was primarily women in their middle and older ages. The book group set. I have a feeling most of the people there had read and appreciated the book. It was definitely a book group type of crowd.

This is the perfect show to take your mother to, or if, like me, you're a lover of the English language and enjoy a very good night out. The three-hour run time (with a 20-minute interval) went very quickly.

This comes highly recommended. 

And if you're interested, here are some things to read about the history of the Oxford English Dictionary. 

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester

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