THEATER REVIEW / ‘GREAT EXPECTATIONS’ : Pip of a Tale : That the story of such an unappealing youth makes such good drama is a testament to Dickens’ ability to spin a good yarn.

“It is a most miserable thing to be ashamed of home,” confesses the narrator Pip in the first fully staged production of PCPA Theaterfest’s original adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations.”

The Industrial Revolution may have brought upward mobility and new opportunities to the growing ranks of the middle class in 19th-Century England. But in 1863, Dickens’ novel diagnosed the dark side of their scamper up the social ladder: Pip’s origins in the honest but unsophisticated laboring class have become a source of deep embarrassment to him.

This is the story of the first Yuppie, with all the severed roots and distorted human values that resonate in our own time. And director Gale Fury Childs’ adaptation keeps the moral implications in admirable focus without straying from the story’s dramatic confines.

When Pip (Michael Scott Shipley) is elevated to the ranks of leisured gentlemen, he quickly acquires the least desirable traits of his new station--living extravagantly beyond his means, contributing nothing to society and developing a snobbish disdain for the true-hearted but socially inept blacksmith who raised him. That the education of this remarkably unappealing youth makes such an engrossing drama is a testament to Dickens’ timeless ability to spin a good yarn as well as his eye for eccentric characters.

Both qualities are evident in the PCPA production.

Shipley credibly straddles Pip’s transition from boy to early manhood, surrounded by cast members who don multiple roles. Gregg Coffin’s impressive range seems barely challenged by his diverse characters, so effortlessly does he slip into the loutish convict Magwitch, the shrewd lawyer Jaggers and Pip’s self-important foppish Uncle Pumblechook.

Jack Greenman exudes big-hearted dignity as the humble blacksmith Joe and oily cravenness as the spoiled aristocrat Bentley Drummle. But his turn as Jaggers’ split-personality assistant Wemmick could use more cynical austerity in his “city” mode to balance his warmer “country” manners.

Teresa Thuman makes a suitably creepy Miss Havisham, the once-jilted bride who withdrew from the world to plot her revenge on men. She also plays Pip’s stern sister and the sinister housekeeper “tamed” by Jaggers.

Karen Barbour is chillingly understated as Havisham’s ward Estella. In sharp contrast is her compassion as Pip’s childhood friend, and her over-the-top Ophelia in a second-act parody of “Hamlet” that rivals Mark Twain’s riverboat rendition in “Huck Finn” for outrageous excess. Eric M. Cole plays the melancholy Prince in that playlet, as well as Pip’s loyal friend Herbert.

PCPA Theaterfest’s mission as a training conservatory program is well-served with English accents precisely detailed to express class differences. Katrina Souza’s period costumes also lend authenticity.

The small ensemble keeps the staging intimate and well-suited to PCPA’s newly opened 198-seat performance space.

All in all, it’s a splendid evening but a long one. The areas needing improvement and tightening are clearly the product of loyal adaptation, but even loving parents must sometimes be firm.

* WHERE AND WHEN

“Great Expectations” will be performed through Feb. 7 at the Allan Hancock College Severson Theatre in Santa Maria. Evening performances at 8 p.m. are $15 Thursdays and Sundays, $12 Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. matinees Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays are $12. Running time is 2 hours, 50 minutes. Call 549-7272 for reservations or information.