Dickens Scene Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

An entrant performs a short, memorised scene drawn from the novels of Charles Dickens, bringing one or more of his vivid characters to life within a strict time limit.

A Dickens scene class asks a young performer to lift a passage out of a novel and perform it as a piece of live theatre. Unlike a play, a novel is written to be read, so the performer first has to decide what to keep: the narrator’s description, the spoken lines, or a blend of both. A good entry turns the printed page into a short, self-contained performance that an audience who has never read the book can follow.

A round is brief and plain. The entrant is called in, usually names the book and the character or characters, settles for a moment and then performs without scenery or a costume change. Dickens is famous for comic and grotesque characters with unmistakable voices, so many entrants play several people in one passage, switching between them with a change of voice, posture and eyeline while the adjudicator watches for clear, distinct and believable choices.

On paper an entry is an edited extract that fits the time limit and has a natural shape: a beginning, a turn and an ending. The Victorian sentences are long and the vocabulary is unfamiliar, so cutting is a skill in itself; the best extracts are trimmed until the story moves quickly but the humour, menace or pathos of the original stays intact. Learning the piece by heart is the normal expectation.

On the eTalenter template listed here Dickens Scene is an individual entry, open to boys and girls together, performed in English, with six age bands from 7 and under to 18 and under. The limit is 5 minutes for the four youngest bands and 6 minutes for the two oldest, and every round is marked out of 100. The source syllabus for that event describes its Dickens classes as running from 13 to 18 and under, so check your own event’s rules before copying the younger bands. A separate item, Dickens Scene Duo, covers the team version.

Where Dickens Scene is run

Dickens Scene appears on one eTalenter template, a British music, speech and drama eisteddfod, where it sits in the action classes beside Monologue, Shakespeare Scene and the duologue-style items. Speech and drama festivals in several countries run classes built on a single author or a prose extract under other names, but this page records only the template listed here.

• United Kingdom

Key facts

• Individual entry, open to boys and girls together, performed in English
• Six age bands on the template, from 7 and under up to 18 and under
• Time limit is 5 minutes for the four youngest bands and 6 minutes for the two oldest
• Every round is marked out of 100, with no judging criteria printed on the template
• Normally learned by heart and performed without props, scenery or a costume change
• The team version is the separate item Dickens Scene Duo, and the sister solo class is Shakespeare Scene

On eTalenter, Dickens Scene is filed under Action and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Dickens Scene is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to 5–6 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Dickens Scene

What a Dickens Scene panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Characterisation: each person in the extract has a distinct voice, posture and attitude, so the audience always knows who is speaking
• Handling of the prose: long Victorian sentences are phrased sensibly, with breath at the natural turns rather than at every comma
• Humour and mood: comic, sinister or touching moments land because the timing and pace are controlled
• Voice and diction: every word is audible and clear, even in character voices, with volume and pitch varied to suit the scene
• Memory and focus: the piece is secure, with no hesitation, and the performer stays in character between lines
• Choice and shaping of the extract: it suits the performer’s age, fits the time limit and ends on a deliberate moment

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Dickens Scene under Scoring Setup, or start from the full mono act judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Dickens Scene

How entrants and their teachers usually get Dickens Scene right on the day:

• Choose an extract with a clear situation and two or three strong characters, rather than a long stretch of description
• Read the whole chapter first so you know what has just happened, then cut your extract to a self-contained story
• Give each character one clear vocal and physical choice, such as pace, pitch, stance or a small gesture, and keep it consistent
• Decide where each character stands in the space and look at that spot every time they speak, so the switches are easy to follow
• Time the piece aloud and cut it to the limit for your age band, ending on a strong line rather than running out of time
• Paraphrase any unfamiliar word or sentence in plain English before memorising it, so the meaning reaches the audience
• Rehearse in front of a teacher or friend and ask which character was hardest to tell apart, then exaggerate that difference slightly

Frequently asked questions

Is Dickens Scene judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What is a Dickens scene class in a speech and drama festival?

It is a class where an entrant performs a short memorised extract from a novel by Charles Dickens and is judged on characterisation, handling of the language and control within a time limit.

How long is a Dickens scene in competition?

It depends on the event. On the British eisteddfod template listed here the limit is 5 minutes for the four youngest age bands and 6 minutes for the two oldest.

Is a Dickens scene the same as a monologue?

They are close, but they are separate catalogue items. A monologue is usually one speaker from any source, while a Dickens scene is drawn from his novels and often involves switching between several characters.

Do I have to learn the extract by heart?

A Dickens scene is normally performed from memory, unlike a reading class. Check your event’s syllabus for any rule on scripts, props or costume.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full mono act judging criteria guide, or browse every action competition item.