Let’s go to the Theatre!

OLIVER TWIST

Oliver Twist
Fondo Antiguo de la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla

On 28th February, all the students attending the third year at my school went to the Jolly theatre to watch a play about the book “Oliver Twist”. 

 “Oliver Twist “ Is a novel written by Charles Dickens, an important writer of Victorian Age, who wrote about the problems of society and of the poor people (especially of poor children) in his books; one the most important of them is precisely “Oliver Twist ”, but there are many others too. 

The main character of this story is a child, Oliver, who is an orphan, because his mother Ages was repudieted because she was pregnant, not being married and thus dishonouring the good name of her family. Unfortunately Oliver’s mother died while living birth to her son, and the boy is sent to live in a workhouse. In those times,  orphans, pregnant unmarried women, and disable people ( group of people who were considered the waste of society) were sent to live and work in workhouses, living in terrible conditions, fed only on disgusting soups.

One day Oliver asked for some more soup,  because he is underfed and he was fearing of dying like his friend, but after this innocent request he was considered a “rebel” and he is sent away. 

Oliver travelled for a day and he arrived in London. There he met a gang of thieves who forced him to do bad things like stealing. He is mistaken for a thief: he is arrested for a crime he has not committed (but his new “friends” have); fortunately  thanks to a gentleman, he is released, and this gentleman takes care of him.  We know from the book that the gentleman is Oliver’s  grandfather. In the play Oliver is taken again to the thieves’ hideout. There the only person who has care of him, Nancy, is killed by her man Bill, who was  Fagin’s ally and friend and the leader of the criminal gang of thieves.  When Oliver is made fun of his courteous ways and his innocence, his only friend Dodger kills Bill because he was angry for the death of Nancy, who was just trying to get Oliver back to Mr Brownlow, the man who had protected him because he thought he could have a better future. Fagin (the man who throughout the show takes advantage of Oliver and the rest of the gang to get rich) kills Dodger for vengeance. In the end the spirits of the dead visit Fagin in prison before he is executed.

It’s a very beautiful show, especially for its ending and for its theatrical adaptation. After watching this play, many of us would like to read the booknow, so we recommend it! 😉

(Written by Sofia Di lorenzo)