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Unexpected Twist – An Oliver Twisted Tale
9th May 2023 - 13th May 2023
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Unexpected Twist is the re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic, Oliver Twist, by one of the best-loved figures in the children’s book world, Michael Rosen.
Combining two stories in one; Rosen’s story and the Dickens classic that inspired it. Two stories that twist together, unexpectedly!
Shona and her class are studying the book, Oliver Twist. She’s the new girl in school and is finding it hard to stay out of trouble – much like Oliver himself! When she’s given a new phone by a stranger, she begins to suspect there’s something unusual about the new boys she’s met.
This thrilling production is brought to vivid life by The Children’s Theatre Partnership, whose shows have included Animal Farm, Holes and The Jungle Book.
Directed by James Dacre
Rosen’s novel is adapted for the stage by BAFTA award winning playwright Roy Williams with original music by rising R&B star Yaya Bey and BAC Beatbox Academy’s Conrad Murray.
Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes (including interval)
Unexpected Twist Activity Resources Pack 2023
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Event Reviews
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The View from the Stalls - Pete Phillips
It's not uncommon for the stories by some of our well-known playwrights to be "re-imagined" for the modern era - plenty of Shakespeare plays have undergone this - but they generally just use elements of the story almost invisibly in a more modern environment. Writer Michael Rosen's play uses its clever title to immediately indicate that it is something old and something new combined into something different. "Unexpected Twist" does exactly what it says, taking Charles Dickens's story written in the 1830's and effectively transposing it to modern day England which, despite the hundred or so years between the two, still has circumstances which in many ways are similar.
The first thing we are told is that all of the music and sound effects are played using the actors' own vocalisations directly into a microphone, which is done by most of the cast but especially Alex Hardie and Alexander Lobo Moreno, who lead the audience into the first musical number which leaves nothing to the imagination - "Welcome to School. We don’t want to be here". Fair enough, for this is a classroom of students who are disenfranchised, body-shamed, poor, caught up in a never-ending circle of theft and drug-dealing and the struggles of daily life - and forced to read Oliver Twist. And these issues affect not just the students but, as we find out later, their teacher Miss Cavani (Rosie Hilal) too, who at least tries to help.
There are not just parallels with the characters in Dickens's novel, they appear in the show as their "other selves" and dressed appropriately. Studying Oliver Twist, they are initially unaware of these parallels where crime has been updated to mobile phone thefts and drugs. Shona/Oliver (Drew Hylton) is living with her father (Thomas Vernal) who, as best he can, is trying to keep the family together after the loss of his wife and, with little or no money, is in debt to the landlord, having regularly to move from one property to another and basically surviving on chips. Shona's nan (Polly Lister) is working a scam down the market in conjunction with Pops/Sikes (James Meteyard) and it is here that we see, or rather hear, a stark contrast in language which probably delineates two different sections of the audience. For whilst everything for the youngsters is "whack" (unappealing in urban slang) and performed throughout in hip-hop language, for the nan, it is cockney rhyming slang which is prevalent (as she is suffering from "the old sunny dancer") - there is at least a glossary for the latter in the programme so get out your "bees and honey", buy one and be educated! This shows that each generation will effectively have its own "secret" language, known to some, unintelligible to others, something which applies equally to this show - you just go with the flow.
Using a cast of predominantly young actors of mixed race works well in this adaptation of Rosen's book by Roy Williams. Rosen admits that he wanted it to appeal to a young audience but could not get the language right until Williams's involvement (so from a 77 year old to a relative nipper who only started writing in the 1990's)! There is, of course, a large creative team behind this collaboration, from the songwriters to the set designers. It clearly reached its target audience in Malvern, getting a standing ovation as the cast took their curtain call. But this was not the end. The cast returned to perform an ad-hoc set with a member of the audience directing how things went - very enjoyable indeed!
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Showtime! - John Phillpott
We're sat in our seats and two children briskly push past heading for the centre of the row.
An ‘excuse me’ would be nice but there you go. They’re followed by an adult who plonks herself down next to them and starts playing with that now-universal, ubiquitous toy called a mobile phone.
It’s a micro snapshot of modern life and one that is – ironically - about to also be replicated on stage. Life imitates art and art imitates life… chicken or egg and so on.
Already, the hip-hop beat is pumping and bumping its way into our senses, crashing through the auditorium like a First World War artillery barrage. There’s nowhere to take cover.
Those of us aged under 16 stare straight ahead impassively, the music now being so familiar and endlessly predictable. Mums and dads politely feign comprehension, while the grey hairs try to figure out how on earth it went from the Beatles to this.
We’re watching a classroom scene and I sincerely hope there’s no one from Ofsted lurking in the back of the stalls. Shona (Drew Hylton) is the new girl on the block and is suffering from a disease that only time will cure. That of being a teenager.
She snarls, grunts, pouts and shouts her way through the lesson and generally gives heroically right-on teacher Miss Cavani (Rosie Hilal) a hard time. The object of the exercise is to try to enthuse her charges with the Charles Dickens classic Oliver Twist. Best of luck with that one then.
Faced with an adolescent who makes Harry Enfield’s ‘Kevin’ character look like Little Lord Fauntleroy, she nevertheless ploughs on with her thankless task.
You can’t fail to admire her stoicism and endurance as every session turns into a nightmare of overactive sebaceous glands, rampant hormones, and sweaty socks that could probably make their way to the washing machine unaided.
Meanwhile, the traditional Dickens characters have dug deep into the period dressing-up box, appearing on walkways high above the stage like ghosts or perhaps avenging angels, as if to remind us of the play’s ancestry.
Writer Michael Rosen and adaptor Roy Williams clearly want to draw parallels with the poverty and despair of the 1830s poor and the present day, with its foodbanks and inflation-ravaged political climate.
But the feasibility of some of the connections are stretched to breaking point. For instance, how can Nan, a kindly old boot played by Polly Lister, suddenly morph into Fagin, an individual who famously doesn’t have his charges’ best interests at heart?
Michael Rosen, is of course, theatre royalty. To question any of his creations is akin to a 16th century Protestant heretic doubting the validity of the bread and the wine.
But it seems to me that a golden opportunity has been squandered here in the writer’s headlong rush to get down with the kids who, it should be stressed, are consistently magnificent throughout.
And James Dacre’s punchy direction, punctuated by Yaya Bey and Conrad Murray’s undoubted song writing skills keep the momentum on course, although the sound quality on the first night certainly left something to be desired.
But the fact remains that Unexpected Twist is arguably a bit of a misnomer, all the action being entirely predictable. A few surprises were required… but unfortunately, they never materialised.
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Behind the Arras - Emma Trimble
Two worlds collide in this powerful Oliver Twisted Tale, where anything is far from ‘chicken and rice’. There’s plenty of ‘Barney Rubble’ and ‘Moby Dick’ Hip Hop, Unexpected Twist at Malvern Theatres doesn’t sugar coat the poverty stricken strife faced by so many on the mean streets of life, where accepting or ignoring dangers comes at a price far more expensive than a mobile phone.
Written by Michael Rosen, we see the overlapping similarities between Shona and her classmates with the classic Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, that is as much relevant today as it was when Dickens wrote this in the 1830s, due to exploitations still prevalent today, right now.
Shona, Drew Hylton, started a new school and is the only pupil without a mobile phone, as her mum died two years earliet and her dad lost his job, so when Tino, Alexander Lobo Moreno, offered Shona a way to have a phone and make some cash on the side, she dived straight in without considering the consequences and started peddling for Pops, James Meteyard.
Shona’s Nan, Polly Lister, suffers ‘the old sunny dancer’ and truths claw their way to the surface, dusting off the domestic abuse that Miss Cavani, Rosie Hilal, suffers at the hands of her boyfriend sees an immense pressure building and pummelling down on all shoulders till the weight becomes excessive to bear. Not everything is as it seems as the fight for freedom intensifies.
What sets this powerful, dark, tale apart from any other production is the collaboration of songwriters Yaya Bey, rising R&B star and BAC Beatbox Academy’s Conrad Murray, with original music an eclectic mix of beatbox, grime and hip hop. There are no instruments on stage apart from the talented beatbox beats from Gaz, Alex Hardie, and Pops.
The duets between Shona and her dad, Thomas Vernal, really tug at the heartstrings and Vernal’s fantastic harmonies and stage presence gel the whole performance together with love running deep between father and daughter.
A powerful re-telling directed by James Dacre and an interconnecting stage design by Frankie Bradshaw, seamlessly amalgamates the classroom with the workhouse but be mindful the struggles lurking behind every forced smile and accept that life is a struggle worth struggling for.
