Kiwi adaptation of Oliver’s twist
A new adaptation of Oliver Twist opening in Christchurch next week was created after a row with a Hollywood movie star.
Just like the title character from Charles Dickens’ classic novel, this play was born in turbulent circumstances in the north of England. The production was first staged last year at the East Riding Theatre in Yorkshire and directed by Mike Friend, the creative director of Lyttelton theatre group The Loons. Friend has now transferred the modern adaptation to NZ, opening the play at The Loons’ new home in the rebuilt Lyttelton Primary School tonight.
But the adaptation was written in a tumultuous fortnight of rehearsals after Friend had a row with movie star and East Riding Theatre creative director Vincent Regan, best known for his roles in 300, Troy and Clash of the Titans. Friend claims that Regan hadn’t finished the full script in time for the rehearsal so he had to take over the adaptation with East Riding Theatre artistic director and actor Adrian Rawlins, who played Harry Potter’s dad in the wizarding film franchise.
‘‘Vince Regan got in a mess ... We just said ‘f... this’ and took over the adaptation,’’ he says. ‘‘I arrived in England and he had only written 13 pages, and we had no choice but to take on the adaptation. He got all moody and was trying to send the f ...... script from Africa or wherever. It was a terrible draft one, so in the end it became [Adrian] and mine’s adaptation.’’
Did Friend fall out with Regan over the script? ‘‘Oh f... yeah. He stormed out and we have never spoken since.’’
An email seeking a response from Vincent Regan’s listed agent has gone unanswered.
The show that came from the two-week writing and rehearsal period was critically acclaimed in the UK for its ‘‘vicious modernity’’. The adaptation is true to Dickens’ original language and story but gives the tale a contemporary twist, drawing on imagery from the recent European refugee crisis. ‘‘It starts in a kind of Eastern European feel. You see refugees arriving at the workhouse. A pregnant woman arrives with one shoe. That is Oliver’s mother and she gives birth on stage,’’ Friend says. ‘‘All the language is Dickens, but all the images and the style is contemporary. It is a timeless thing. It is a bit like Mad Max. You are not sure where or when it is set.’’
The new show is clearly a world away from Lionel Bart’s famous 1960 musical Oliver!, but there are musical numbers.
Christchurch singer-songwriter Carmel Courtney leads a live band featuring Devilish Mary & The Holy Rollers. The band provides music for songs as diverse as classic rock, traditional pub singalongs, Victorian carols, and electronica.
The cast is equally as diverse, with Maori writer Ben Brown providing narration; British actors from the East Riding Theatre playing key roles; David Ladderman playing Bill Sikes as an Australian ex-convict; Loons regular Tom Trevella as Mr Bumble, and a German Artful Dodger.