What stage play did Dickens write and perform with his family?

The stage play Dickens wrote and performed with his family was The Frozen Deep. It was a three-act Arctic melodrama first staged as an amateur theatrical at Dickens’s home, Tavistock House, in January 1857.

The play was written by Wilkie Collins with substantial guidance, revision, and theatrical management from Dickens. Dickens played Richard Wardour, supervised the scenery and production, and involved members of his family in the original cast. His daughters Kate and Mary performed in the family production, alongside friends and collaborators.

The story was inspired by the public controversy surrounding Sir John Franklin’s lost Arctic expedition. Dickens disliked John Rae’s report that Inuit testimony indicated the starving expedition members had resorted to cannibalism, and the play transformed the polar setting and expedition anxieties into melodrama. Modern readers may also encounter criticism of its racist portrayal of Inuit people.

The Frozen Deep became much more than a private entertainment. It was performed for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, then revived for large benefit performances supporting the family of Dickens’s friend Douglas Jerrold. It also brought Dickens into professional contact with actress Ellen Ternan.