Miranda Jonte and playwright John Minigan turn Dickens into the subject of a witty and compelling literary cold case
STAGEANDCINEMA.com – Despite the broken air-conditioning on a hot and sticky night, Miranda Jonté kept me engaged and curious with her spirited portrayal of both a literary sleuth and one of literature’s iconic characters in (re)Dressing Miss Havisham at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Jonté collaborated with playwright John Minigan to create this production, directed by Peter Sampieri and commissioned by Back Porch Theater for Boston Playwrights’ Theatre’s New Play Incubator Series.
Jonté begins the play by pulling white dust covers off several pieces of Victorian-era furniture scattered about the black-box stage. She removes a white wedding dress from a dummy seated before a mirrored dressing table and begins discussing Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Charles Dickens, Jonté argues, did not merely create a memorable literary figure in Havisham; he created what became the archetype of the spinster or “old maid,” an unmarried woman in her forties living an isolated and unhappy life. After casting the dummy aside, Jonté slips into the white dress herself and declares, “the most obvious thing Charles Dickens got wrong was the white wedding dress.”
Jonte transitions seamlessly between Havisham — speaking in a British accent — and Miranda, a contemporary American woman navigating an acting career and life as an unmarried but decidedly not unhappy woman in her forties. She is consistently engaging to watch as she shifts identities while gradually building her case against Dickens. Minigan’s script remains intelligent and playful throughout, and Jonte’s performance carries the audience toward a genuinely surprising conclusion. It is unfortunate that the climactic final image was not fully visible from my front-row seat; because the action occurs between seating rows, the heads of other patrons blocked my view. Still, that imperfect visibility feels oddly appropriate for a play built around questioning what Charles Dickens — and the rest of us — choose to see, distort, or overlook about women like Miss Havisham.
Review by Lynne Weiss
Photos by Bob Tucker/Focal Point Studios
(re)Dressing Miss Havisham
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
949 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston
75 minutes, no intermission
ends on May 24, 2026
for tickets ($12-$35), call 617.353.5443
or visit
for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston
