Charles Dickens’s 19th-century orphan, Oliver, is given a modern twist in this high-energy musical hybrid. Based on Michael Rosen’s book of the same name and adapted by Roy Williams, it draws out the modern-day parallels in that classic, which really come to resonate.
Dickens’s characters come alive as a class of unruly schoolchildren read his novel. They intermingle with the present-day drama of Shona (Drew Hylton), whose single father (Thomas Vernal) is having trouble making ends meet. Shona is offered a free mobile phone at school but realises she is expected to use it to “fetch and carry” for a street gang. Directed by James Dacre, this is an original production that shows, so keenly, how the trap of child poverty can lead to the trap of child crime.
