OLIVER TWIST (Ramps on the Moon/Leeds Playhouse)*****

 

By Arran

Link: https://leedsplayhouse.org.uk/events/oliver-twist-at-home

Available until: 20^th November 2021. Available for 48 hours after the date and time of your showing.

Oliver Twist is a really brilliant play from Ramps on the Moon and it is a very important one too. I haven’t read the book (I don’t think even Megan has read it yet and she reads Shakespeare and Jane Austen) so I don’t know how close it is to the original though it is similar to the musical. But this production is not just about turning a book into a brilliant play. It is about showing how capable people with disabilities are.

I have a disability. I am a selective mute. I did not talk till I was seven or eight but I learned sign language. When I started school I didn’t talk there and even now I am fifteen there are days when I don’t want to talk. I am in a football team and I don’t feel comfortable shouting out to my teammates but my coach says that is okay because it teaches the other players to keep their heads up and be aware of their surroundings and the runs I like to make as a left winger. We also have our own sign language we use on the pitch which the other team doesn’t understand. They make adjustments for me which means I can make adjustments which make me into a better player for them.

This is a really important play for me because it shows all the things people with disabilities can do. The fact they can be clever (not that I’m very clever), have talents and be successful. Lots of the characters in this adaptation of Oliver Twist have a disability and so do the actors who play them. Bryony Lavery wrote the script and she is really brilliant. She does seem to have followed the story as far as I know it but she has written the disabilities into the story in a way that really adds to it and makes it even better and which shows the abilities of the actors.

Director Amy Leach has obviously created an environment which is physically and emotionally safe for the actors, as well as giving the play a really exciting and fun feel. There are times when characters seem to be able to communicate in a situation where they aren’t looking at each other but I think this is called dramatic licence and it’s all about including the audience in the performance. It happens all the time in plays and I think it’s completely understandable for it to happen in this play too. I hope that doesn’t sound critical. I just wanted to mention it because I thought some people might criticise it and I think it’s a really valid way to perform the play because the audience are part of it too.

First of all I think it is really important for me to say this is a really good production and performance. This is not a case of a really kind person giving opportunities to people who have a disability. This does happen and it is kind but this is a lot more than that. It is about a group of really talented actors putting on a really good show with really excellent performances. Even if all you want is to see a good play then you can book this one because that is exactly what you will see.

But the disabilities of the characters and actors are also very important and I think this is really inspiring not just for people with disabilities who might not believe in themselves but for the people who for one reason or another don’t believe in them. Both the characters and actors show that people with disabilities can be amazing. They are talented, intelligent, funny, kind, loyal and lots of other really good qualities. Their disabilities are part of them but not the only part of them. I think it is really important for people to realise this because often they don’t know. They make assumptions about what people with disabilities can and can’t do and people with disabilities don’t always have the confidence to make their voice heard (literally in my case) and often aren’t listened to anyway.

This production is a really amazing celebration of what can be achieved if you listen to people with disabilities, accept them as they are and see past their disability to the individual. I’m not saying I could do anything half as good as they do but I do think I (and many other people with a disability) can do more than a lot of people realise.

One thing that made this production really special for me is that Oliver doesn’t speak but he is still able to learn things and connect to people and achieve so much. Brooklyn Melvin is a really brilliant actor who shows us everything Oliver is thinking and feeling through his body movement and he really allows us to admire and respect Oliver’s courage and determination.

Nadeem Islam is really fun, amusing and kind as the Artful Dodger, who has a hearing impairment and uses sign language. Amy Conachan, who uses a wheelchair, is a very confident and spirited Swifty and really mean as Mrs Thingummy. A lot of the actors play two characters which is a great way of showing how wide their acting talent is. Georgia Jackson and Mitesh Soni are very unkind as Charlotte and Noah but they are really lovely as Fingers and Charley. Rebekah Hill is really sweet as Luna and quite scary as Mrs Mann.

Katie Erich is a gentle, kind Rose, Caroline Parker gives Fagin lots of personality and Clare-Louise English is a really lovely and lively Nancy. Stephen Collins is brilliantly menacing as Bill Sikes. It’s such a powerful performance. Christopher Wright is really good with Mr Brownlow’s story arc and Dan Willis and Benjamin Wilson characterise their multiple roles really well. I love the way the dog is moved.

I love Oliver Twist and if you want to be inspired by what people with disabilities can achieve, educated about how different and able we all are or you just want to see a really good play, it is a really good play to watch.