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This adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel by Anya Reiss aims to stay true to the book. It pays more attention to the dark grimness of the original and not following the path of Lionel Bart's much loved musical. The set consists of the same three shipping containers as A Tale Of Two Cities, (the two productions are sharing the stage for a few weeks). Ingeniously, Fly Davis has been able to use the same set in a different way. The costumes are great! At the beginning much of the cast sport tall velvet hats and Mrs Sowerberry's curtain like dress which she hitches up with strings produced a number of laughs among the audience. |
Fagin's gang was depicted wonderfully, wearing leather bomber jackets with graffiti names scrawled on them. Shaun Mason as Charley was very funny with his annoying cackle and was the cause of much delight when he moved around the stage on a Segway for a bit. Jack Hawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger was played with huge charisma and energy by Danny-Boy Hatchard. He was cheeky but also managed to bring out the more sensitive side to Dodger's character that is rarely seen. I think that it was a very fun idea to have him on Heelys, all the better to dodge with! |
Gbemisola Ikumelo who played Nancy and Mrs Corney was super. Her Nancy was so kind-hearted and her Mrs Corney was absolutely hilarious!
Despite the play being aimed at those 6+, I think that there were some subtleties and intricacies that the youngest members of the audience would not have been able to fully understand or follow. The small cast each play at least two different characters in the play (with the exception of Oliver). Although we are told how each character will look slightly different in the kids' programme it can occasionally be quite hard to notice, such as when Mr Bumble changes to Bill Sikes through simply turning his hat around and unbuttoning his coat. It was funny if you could notice it, but I fear that some couldn't. It was great to see so many children in the audience, and I asked a 6 year old what she thought. She said that she did find some of it "really tricky to follow", but she enjoyed the play nonetheless. Overall, the story does move very quickly and some details are slightly lost - we don't quite catch the brutish and violent nature of Bill Sikes - but there is always enough energy to drive the show forward. |
I have to say that the opening sequence was somewhat...perplexing. It featured the cast standing behind a tape barrier doing some peculiar movements. Perhaps it was supposed to illustrate how the people in workhouses were worked incredibly hard. Instead it looked rather more like they were trying to remove an irritating louse in a very agitated manner.
This production manages to show the darker side to Dickens' novel while at the same time being engaging and entertaining, I would definitely recommend going to see it over the summer!