CHARLES Dickens’ Great Expectations is one of the best loved and well known of novels, peopled with iconic characters and exploring perennial themes of family and class, love and loss, belonging and alienation.

Studied for GCSE, adapted time and again, in the theatre and for both the big and small screen, it is a brave company that decides to take up the story again. Will they stick to tradition – and risk accusations they brought nothing new – or dare some audacious interpretation and face possible opprobrium for dabbling with a classic?

The curiously named Tilted Wig Productions, with Malvern Theatres, has opted for the first approach in their production, running at Bath Theatre Royal till Saturday. With a small cast taking on a host of characters and using the device of a large metal box on stage as the focus for fluid changes from space to space and scene to scene, this adaptation written by Ken Bentley stays true to the novel. It captures the spirit of Dickens’ tale, without doing anything to frighten the horses.

The cast certainly earn their keep. Nichola McAuliffe plays Miss Havisham, and Sean Aydon is Pip – while Ollie King is the omnipresent musician. The remaining six cast members take on a total of 25 characters between them, as well as taking part in ensemble. It is a credit to their professionalism and the direction that they manage this feat so smoothly and convincingly (though the most unsettling transformation was when Eliza Collings was struck down dead as Mrs Joe and rose again almost immediately as second-wife-to-be Biddy).

Set designer James Turner describes the set as a giant music box, or story box, and its opening to reveal the pale ragged hangings of Miss Havisham’s room framed by the numerals of a huge stopped clock, conjures an appropriate sense of gothic claustrophobia. Dickens’ novel powerfully conjures up a sense of place – whether that is the gloomy churchyard in the bleak marshes where Pip meets Magwitch, or Satis House with its dust and shadows - so that a stage production is always going to rely on the work of the audience’s imagination. One unusual touch was Ollie King’s music. His melodeon playing added an atmosphere and emotional resonance without being obtrusive or overwhelming.

Great Expectations begins at 7.30pm tonight and Wednesday, 8pm Thursday to Saturday, with matinees at 2.30pm on Wednesday and Saturday. Tickets are £17.50-£33.50. To book, visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk.