Down the stairs and through the fire doors, underneath the seating banks, sharp left under the black curtains and out into the light haze of the auditorium. Angles and shadows help conjure up the labyrinthine slums of Dickens’s London as we look out across the alley to the other half of the audience. Playing this in traverse is bold. It will bring something of the crowded intensity of the novel, we think, but be tough on young actors. Thirty-strong, the cast arrive singing, filling the stage in the criss-cross manner of a West-End musical and immediately impressing with their confidence in the traverse space. Even though Neil Bartlett’s version is heavily compressed (no Monks, the Chertsey raid left vague), it must still be played at breakneck speed. Responsibility for setting the pace often falls to the wonderfully agile and dynamic performance of Thomas Round (W) as Oliver himself, even though, as in the novel, he says relatively little when compared with all of those who abuse and exploit him. Toby Richardson (g) excels as the sneering bully, Noah Claypole, while Cameron Dejahang (S) manages to combine louche charm with just a whiff of the scarily unpredictable in his Artful Dodger. As the slightly dim sidekick, Charley, David Maitland-Jones (S) is superb, and Rory Hay (g) as the puppet-master himself, Fagin, is suitably slippery, pitiable and vicious.
Great credit to the impressively made-up and costumed Emil Almazov (g), whose booming, menacing Bill Sikes renders one of English literature’s great psychopaths. A little less credit to the script, which doesn’t make it completely clear why Bill abducts Oliver and accidentally hangs himself, but their appearance on the lighting gantry high above our heads is genuinely exciting and gives us perhaps the best song of the evening, the ‘hanging’ danse macabre from the ensemble below. When not accompanying, top-hatted Mr Elton makes his keyboard wince like a barrel organ and squeak like a trapdoor. The clever, minimalist soundscape complements the moody orange floor lighting of this unusual, ambitious and successful production. Hats off, lastly, to crowd favourites Mr Bumble and Mrs Corney (Ben Lawson (R) and Fleur Keeble (V)) for a double act played skilfully for laughs while managing to retain something of the corruption of this unpleasant pair.
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