The story of the creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary is an interesting one. A very fine recent book on the subject is Sarah Ogilvie’s The Dictionary People, published in 2023, three years after Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words, which is now an acclaimed play.
The play based on Williams’ book does tell the story too, but that story is also an ambitious attempt to encapsulate an era through the life of Williams’ protagonist, Esme Nicholl.
I have not read the book (my bad) so I cannot verify how true the play is to it, but author Williams was in Brisbane on Saturday for opening night and she seemed pretty happy with it. Very happy actually … so happy that she was at QPAC’s Playhouse to view the stage adaptation of The Dictionary of Lost Words for the tenth time. Considering that the play is two hours and 45 minutes long, including interval, that’s quite a commitment.
Perhaps a review is redundant when we were told before the show that the season had all but sold out. But there might be a few seats left, if you hurry.
The production has already played to packed houses in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. State Theatre Company South Australia and Sydney Theatre Company teamed with QPAC to bring it to Brisbane, where it has been keenly waited.
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Fans of the book lapped it up. It’s mostly an enjoyable experience, although I think it could have had more clarity and brevity. The first act is a bit muddled but hits its stride after interval when the threads come together and meaty stuff kicks in with suffragettes and the First World War and how the story really connects with Australia.
It is set in England, of course, in Oxford, but there is an Australian connection and that is clever and intriguing.
Not having read the book I was experiencing the story anew as it follows the life of Esme Nicholl (Shannen Alyce Quan) from the late 1800s to the early 20th century as she grows from a young girl into a woman. Under the care of her father Harry (Johnny Nasser), a lexicographer helping to create that first Oxford English Dictionary, Esme spends her early days in the Scriptorium (“Scrippy” she calls it) where she discovers slips for words that have been neglected or discarded. She begins to create her own collection of largely women’s words – the Dictionary of Lost Words – which is at first just a suitcase full of slips, later a volume all its own.
The ambitious, two-storey set brings to life the Scriptorium with all of its pigeon-holes around a central sorting table
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Just to be clear, this bit is a fiction invented by Williams to explore the idea of the exclusion of women. So, while the dictionary and its primary editor, Sir James Murray (Brian Meegan), are real, much is fictionalised.
The ambitious, two-storey set brings to life the Scriptorium with all of its pigeon-holes around a central sorting table. A large projection transforms the space as it moves to other locations over time, such as a bedroom, school or market. Award-winning designer Jonathon Oxlade worked magic to create a space that transports audiences into the complex world of the book on one stage. The set is a star in its own right.
Also instrumental in ensuring every aspect of the production is as detailed as possible are costumer designer Ailsa Paterson, lighting designer Trent Suidgeest, composer and sound designer Max Lyandvert, assistant director Shannon Rush, accent coach Jennifer Innes and intimacy and fight coordinator Ruth Fallon.
The director is Jessica Arthur , who creates a production that mostly flows but sometimes strays into dramatic dead ends.
The players are all competent and while the production lacks star power there are pivotal moments that work well, thanks to talented actors such as Kathryn Adams who was very good as the bondmaid Lizzie, a recurring motif throughout the play.
But, as I said, it does come together in the second act, which makes sense of the first. The finale brings it all full circle in a very theatrically satisfying way.
Willams’ book is about the words left unrecorded and the play is yet another vehicle to ponder on this remarkable product – the Oxford English Dictionary and all those lost words. I did wonder whether this could have been a musical? Just a thought.
The Dictionary of Lost Words continues at QPAC’s Playhouse until May 10.