Oliver Twist, in this inspired reworking by Deborah McAndrew, is a virtual bystander in his own drama. Played in alternate performances by local boys, Joseph Callaghan and Alex O’Loughlin, young Oliver looks on, squirms and says little.
Instead, the focus is on the rich gallery of characters, many of them grotesques, with which Dickens has filled his pages. Robert Pickavance, that marvellous old stager, is superbly insinuating as the fixer, Fagin, presiding over a stable of juvenile pickpockets. Esther Ruth Elliott makes a comely Nancy, the moll with a heart, eventually “peaching” on her cronies when Oliver’s life is threatened.
But it is Tim Frances who most dominates proceedings, strutting through a variety of roles, not least as the arch hypocrite Mr Bumble - the recipient of Oliver’s famous plea for more - and as Bill Sikes, the Reggie Kray of his day, terrifying London’s underworld. Andrew Price excels at the moral centre of the story, as Mr Brownlow, one of Dickens’ grand old gentlemen making everything all right in the end.
A large, highly-talented ensemble of actor-musicians, directed perceptively by Josette Bushell-Mingo, a succession of catchy Lionel Bart-style songs and a wonderfully atmospheric set, all subfusc and smoky, add up to a delightful show for Christmas with universal appeal.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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