Occupying Oliver

Today is our final day in the rehearsal hall for the National Arts Centre English Theatre production of Oliver. Tomorrow we move to the stage and begin the process of adding all of the technical elements to the show. As I write this, most of the run is sold out, an extension has been announced… and we don’t even have our first audience for another six days. 
As I talk to people about the show, I sense that almost everyone has a personal connection to Oliver. It seems like everyone’s been in it at some point — at school or in a community theatre production. Everyone talks about wanting to bring their kids or their grandchildren to see it. They’re a little excited about it. And since it’s being presented at Christmas, there is an unspoken expectation (as there is with almost everything at this time of year) that this is light family entertainment.
 
I don’t know why, but there are some interesting assumptions about the kind of show Oliver ”should be”. First, it has kids in it, so it must be a kids’ show with nothing to say to adults. Second, it’s a musical, so it must be frivolous. Third, since people remember having a lot of fun when they played The Artful Dodger at age eight, it must be all about fun.
 
There are elements of truth to all of these things, of course, but the complete picture gives us more. People forget that Charles Dickens was an outspoken activist in his time, angry at the immense inequality in English society and even more angry at the abuses of children.  Oliver was intended to chastise the Poor Law, critique a culture whose industrial revolution and pursuit of profit was driven by workhouse slave labour, and shine light on the injustices of a society that seemed hell-bent on keeping teeming masses of desperately poor citizens under the heel of a few wealthy people. Perhaps this sounds familiar. This is why choosing Oliver as holiday programming is about more than picking material that sells tickets.
 
It is a musical, but people who don’t know the form well also don’t know that musicals can be powerfully dramatic. It is about children, but the children in our production are all played by adults. It does have moments of happiness and fun and joy and playfulness, but it is also our duty to make sure that — true to Dickens’ source material — the orphans in the first scene are so hungry that they fear they’ll kill and eat each other; that Nancy is an indentured sex worker who is in a deeply abusive relationship; that there is no cut and dry moral judgement about street kids who steal from rich people so that they can survive; that all of these people were trapped in existences where death and murder were regular occurrences.
 
Great musical theatre writing is exquisite when experienced, and I think that Oliver is as popular as it is because of the moments it does beautifully. If we’ve done our jobs correctly, we’ll be offering something more like a fine dinner than a fast food combo meal. I think Dickens would have a lot to say about the culture in which we currently find ourselves, and I hope that folks who come to see us will be open to hearing it.
 

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