CAN the works of Dickens, that most quintessentially English of authors, be transposed to Scotland? We know that they can, thanks, in very large part, to the many Caledonian productions of A Christmas Carol that have relocated Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and co. to Edinburgh, Glasgow and other Scottish conurbations.

It seems that the Carol’s themes of miserliness, inequality and Damascene conversion are sufficiently universal to enable cross-border adaptation. And, as Gary McNair’s new adaptation for the Tron Theatre Company attests, the same is true of the class-bound society, rampant snobbery and hard won self-discovery that are the subjects of Dickens’s famous novel Great Expectations.

In this, the final production in director Andy Arnold’s excellent, 15-year tenure at the Tron, we bear witness to a decidedly west of Scotland incarnation of Dickens’s young protagonist, the orphan Pip. From the moment Gavin Jon Wright (who is excellent in the lead role) extemporises, hilariously and somewhat shame-facedly, on his name (Philip Pirrip), we know that we are (comic, Glaswegian talking tombstones and all) resolutely north of the Border.

Between them, McNair’s neatly abridged, often extremely humorous script and Arnold’s sure-footed directing transform Dickens’s great narrative into a tremendously engaging two-and-a-half hours of theatre. It helps, of course, that the director has assembled a cast of universally top class Scottish actors.

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No sooner has Pip introduced himself than the great actor-director Gerry Mulgrew pops up as the escaped convict Abel Magwitch. Over the piece, his excellent performance is, as Dickens’s story requires, both viciously threatening and touchingly virtuous.

Pip’s sense of guilt over his theft (on the desperate Magwitch’s behalf) from his remaining family is only deepened by Simon Donaldson’s sympathetically decent portrayal of Pip’s brother-in-law and mentor, the benevolent blacksmith Joe Gargery. Donaldson’s heart-warming playing of Joe contrasts fabulously with his delightfully ghastly portrayal of the unprincipled toff Kelvin Pocket (a cleverly created, composite character who is extracted, in part, from Dickens’s Herbert Pocket, and who McNair appears to have named after a coffeehouse in the West End of Glasgow).

Despite his loyalty to Joe, Pip’s expectations of social mobility are encouraged by his exuberantly snobbish relative Mr Pumblechook (the wonderful Grant Smeaton on deliciously comic form). Indeed, Smeaton later turns his hand, with equal brilliance and copious hilarity, to the socially bigoted lawyer Jaggers.

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There is fantastic, bleak humour, too, in superb actor-comedian Karen Dunbar’s portrayal of the jilted, sinisterly manipulative Miss Havisham. Dunbar’s playing is spectacularly (and nastily) eccentric as she indulges in unpleasant mind games with Pip and young Estella (the perfectly aloof Jamie Marie Leary).

Jenny Booth’s set – which includes a number of dual use, moving pieces – is ingenious, but sometimes clumsy. The scene in which Miss Havisham introduces Pip to her abandoned wedding table (complete with mouldering cake) is memorably disgusting.

Lewis den Hertog’s video work impresses, especially in Havishsam’s incendiary moment, while the piece enjoys atmospheric lighting, sound and music. All of which is to say that this Dickens’s adaptation delivers abundantly on expectations.

Until November 4: tron.co.uk