Review: OLIVER TWIST AT HOME, Leeds Playhouse & Ramps On The Moon (Online)
Photo credit: Anthony Robling
Ramps on the Moon are a pioneering initiative from seven major theatre companies throughout the UK committed to placing deaf and disabled artists and audiences at the core of their work, thereby working to break down the barriers often inherent at the core of the industry with their bold, adventurous works, in conjunction with their member venues. One such venue is Leeds Playhouse, who have remounted and filmed their production of Oliver Twist and made it available to stream at home.
Bryony Lavery’s adaptation does a tremendous job of neatly packing Dickens’ classic novel about the orphaned Oliver who escapes to London and finds himself under the wing of a gang of pickpockets led by Fagin, and eventually under the grip of the notorious Bill Sikes into a nicely paced two-hour runtime, whilst still hitting all the right emotional beats. There’s a real sense of encapsulating the tone of the original novel in its darker, grittier elements, accented beautifully by Joseff Fletcher’s haunting lighting design with its palette of icy blues and stark whites, and John Biddle’s atmospheric sound design. The centrepiece of Hayley Grindle’s set: a Victorian style structure that encompasses everything from Fagin’s den, the workhouse, to a rooftop and Brownlow’s house allows the cast to play around with levels and movement; physicality and energy runs at the core of the piece. There’s also a screen at the back of the stage, allowing for projections of place and pieces of text that allow audiences to be completely immersed in the atmosphere the whole company strive to create with such heart and commitment and though there are moments that perhaps lag a touch too long, it’s impossible not to be swept along.
Such striking design allows for director Amy Leach’s razor sharp vision for inclusivity to come to the fore, and the integration of sign language, captioning and audio description throughout the show is so seamless that we often find ourselves wondering why it’s such a seemingly difficult stretch for the entire industry to follow suit. Not only are some of the company deaf actors, but some of the characters are deaf, notably Oliver himself: this gives the piece as a whole new depth, particularly in the character of Brownlow, who is initially a staunch advocate of oralism (speech in place of sign language) and as a result moves away from the portrayal of the kindly elder gentleman so familiar in other adaptations. It’s an important nod to the attitudes surrounding the deaf community at the time (Brownlow specifically cites a conference that took place in 1880 that advocated overwhelmingly for speech over sign language) and highlights how far society has come, and perhaps still has to go, reflected in the ending of the piece.
With such strong production values, you have a need for an equally strong cast to further elevate the material, and you can expect that from all quarters here! Brooklyn Melvin imbues our titular hero with incredible warmth and sensitivity without having to rely on the spoken word; not only is Oliver disadvantaged by his poverty but when he escapes to London, it falls to Dodger (a delightful turn from Nadeem Islam) to teach him some basic sign language so he can be fed, watered and housed. There’s tremendous energy and charisma that radiates through all of Fagin’s gang and it’s wonderful to see that sense of community at the forefront. Speaking of Fagin, she (yes, gender swap ahoy!) gets a mesmerising turn from Caroline Parker who is chillingly larger than life, once more a distance from the loveable rogue we might be more familiar with from the musical adaptation, adding another nuance to a central relationship as she is now a maternal figure, both to the gang and to Nancy.
Elsewhere, Stephen Collins is incredibly formidable and charismatic as the villainous Bill Sikes; the scenes when he is first introduced and when Oliver is returned to the gang and roped into a robbery are the standouts in our minds, complimented beautifully by Clare – Louise English’s Nancy.
On a personal note, as someone with a disability, this production means so much to me: to be able to see that embraced in both casting and storytelling with such ease is remarkable. This Oliver Twist is bold, adventurous and gives a Dicken’s classic a new vitality. Keep up the great work, Ramps on The Moon!
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Kerrie Nicholson
Oliver Twist: At Home is available to stream until 20 November here.