About this deal
Here’s the photo I tweeted of me outside our old flat – I deliberately chopped half my face off, by the way! Directed by Royal & Derngate’s artistic director James Dacre, the new play with music will star Kate Donnachie ( Aladdin) as Desree, Alex Hardie ( Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster) as Gazz, Rosie Hilal ( Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) as Miss Cavani, Drew Hylton ( Annie) as Shona, Nadine Rose Johnson ( Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster) as Rosie, Polly Lister ( The Worst Witch) as Nan/Lorraine, Alexander Lobo Moreno (GrimeBoy) as Tino, James Meteyard ( Coriolanus) as Pops, Liyah Summers ( Our Lady Of Kibeho) as Rasheda and Thomas Vernal ( The Book of Mormon) as Dad. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. The full cast has been announced for The Children’s Theatre Partnership and Royal & Derngate, Northampton’s co-production of Unexpected Twist, which is set to run at Leicester’s Curve theatre Tuesday 6 to Saturday 10 June. Then I opened the school’s newly renovated library which, very kindly, they’ve named after me – as you can see from the picture! There was a very special event at the Wiener Holocaust Library, launching an exhibition called ‘Holocaust Letters’. These are letters that people sent each other while the terrible events of the Holocaust raged around them. One part of the exhibition includes photos, letters and the canvas bag that the letters were in, sent to my father’s cousin from his parents. He was just 17 when he fled to eastern Poland. He was then arrested by the Russian forces and taken to a labour camp in Russia. Later he was able to join the Polish Free Army (Anders Army), fought with them all the way from Russia to Italy. He then came to Britain, we kept in a Polish Resettlement Camp for two years but then left, stayed with my father’s sister, and became a London cabby. His name is Michael Rechnik and his sons, Grant and Barry, have donated the letters sent by his parents to the Wiener Holocaust Library. It was very moving to see these letters in the exhibition alongside many others. I hope you can get to see this as it’s a rare example of this moment in history being told by people actually experiencing it.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. Faced with an adolescent who makes Harry Enfield’s ‘Kevin’ character look like Little Lord Fauntleroy, she nevertheless ploughs on with her thankless task. I’ve been taking part in live streams (and some recorded ones) for schools. Some with the British Library on how to write your own Fairy Tales. Here’s part of one of my contributions: I’ve filmed at BBC TV’s ‘The Repair Shop’. As I write this, I can’t tell you exactly where, why or what, but the programme I’m in goes out on June 28th. The programme has already put up some photos from the day, so here they are.
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 production has design by Frankie Bradshaw, choreography by Olivier Award-winner Arielle Smith, lighting design by Rory Beaton and sound design by Leigh Davies with casting by Annelie Powell.
Newcastle Brewery ads from the past up for auction
Anyway, learning Yiddish means for me, learning a whole new alphabet. I’m getting there, but I am quite slow! And I don’t always make time during the week to do my homework. It reminds me of me at secondary school, 65 years ago!
Shona’s life is a reflection of Oliver’s. Her sympathetic English teacher, Miss Cavani (Rosie Hilal), who has seen innocent but impressionable children corrupted, attempts to use Oliver Twist to help Shona understand the situation she is in – and how to get out of it. Shona recognises the similarity between Oliver and herself, comparing people in her life to characters from the novel (Cavani is Nancy) and even envisioning characters coming to life – like a psychological horror – whilst insisting that she is not Oliver Twist.
If Thomas Bewick was here now…
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.
Oliver Twist is one of those classics that is timeless but tired. It will be read forever because it’s a good story and its themes remain relevant, but it’s so overdone. Whilst it was fresh at the time, countless authors and artists have told similar tales and explored similar themes.And here’s the listing for the one I did for Shakespeare Week. I hope that a recording of it will go up soon. 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.