Drama. 1-5 males, 1-7 females (4-8 performers total). 75-90 minutes. Suitable for high school and older. First performance: $80 (this includes permission to make copies of the script as necessary for your production).  Each additional performance: $60.  Professional rights should be negotiated directly with YouthPLAYS at info@youthplays.com.

In this adaptation of the classic Dickens' novel, a young orphan boy named Pip is fostered by his sister and her husband, Joe.  Across the marsh comes a mysterious stranger, a convict, who frightens Pip and forces the boy to steal food for him.  The convict escapes and Pip thinks no more of the event.  In time, Pip is sent to a grand but dilapidated manor house, where a reclusive old woman named Miss Havisham (dressed in the torn wedding gown she wore on the day she was jilted at the altar) wastes away the time with her beautiful adopted daughter, Estella.  Pip falls in love with Estella, who has been taught to be elitist and cruel by her adopted mother.  The years go by and though Pip becomes Joe's apprentice, he yearns for a life beyond his reach.  Out of the blue, Pip is informed by a lawyer named Jaggers, that he has a secret benefactor who believes in Pip's "great expectations." Pip imagines Miss Havisham has made his fortune.  Indeed, it appears as if she has groomed Pip and Estella for marital bliss...but all is not as it appears.  The mysterious convict returns with one startling discovery after another.  In the end, love triumphs in this story which trumpets the will of the human spirit and human heart.