MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT

Neither Dickens’s funniest work nor his most memorable, MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT is still a treasure trove of shameless scoundrels and delicious melodrama. The subject is hypocrisy, and Pecksniff is its avatar, though the drunk nurse Sairy Gamp isn’t far behind him. Sean Barrett’s Pecksniff is the epitome of smarm, hilariously unrepentant even when cornered. There are some production flaws—some levels inaudibly low and some edits too obvious—but nothing mars the pleasure of Barrett’s performance, not least of crafty, old Martin Chuzzlewit himself. Chuzzlewit plays the gullible invalid for much of the story, querulous and difficult. The deep, full-throated virile-old-man voice Barrett switches to when he reveals his true nature is marvelous, like the tearing away of a curtain. B.G. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2010]