La pièce
Oliver Twist was written by Dickens at the tender age of twenty five:
it is an extraordinary achievement.
Its major characters and sceneshave passed into myth and one could argue
that it is the most popular
novel of all time. However, few would claim that is the best of Dickens?
novels. Bleak House and Great Expectations are far more accomplished.
The first hundred pages of Oliver Twist are flawless as the child
progresses from the workhouse to the London underworld and the epic
characters of the Beadle, the Artful Dodger, Bill Sikes and Fagin
are introduced. When Oliver asks for more, writes one critic,
history would never be the same again. But as soon as Oliver
is captured at the burglary of his own half-sister's house,
the book descends into slow sentimentality which is redeemed
in the last quarter when the story returns to the London underworld.
Our production follows the lead given by David Lean in his classic
film version and cuts the entire Maylie family sub-plot.
Research has shown that Dickens' obsession with the angelic and frail
Rose Maylie was the result of his own cousin's serious illness.
This is an interesting example of the potential danger of writing
a novel in weekly installments'; the young Dickens was over
influenced by his current emotional state.
The flaws of the construction are perhaps not as serious as
the inherent contradiction in the central argument of the book,
already mentioned in the section on Dickens' art.
If the Workhouse
is a murderous institution for the degradation and even destruction
of the poorest and most vunerable members of society, then what
alternative have the destitute except crime Oliver would die of
neglect and starvation upon the highway if the Artful Dodger did
not rescue him and take him to the warmth and hot sausages of Fagin's
den. But the food and comfort that revive him are the product of crime.
Dickens punishes his criminals'; Bill, Nancy and Fagin are all dead by
the end of the book and the Dodger transported for life to the penal colony
in Australia. And their fates are presented as good and proper punishment.
When Oliver is beaten unconcious and dragged before the cruel and drunken
Judge Fang (a policeman in this adaptation) the entire legal system is
exposed as a corrupt part of the same vicious state machinery that runs
the workhouse. Two hundred pages later the court which tries Fagin and
sentences him to death is presented as a model of fairness. It is impossible
to reconcile the two court scenes and the contradictions within the wider novel.
Dickens' own solution is to demonise Fagin, the Jew becomes the almost
supernatural source of evil. But although this may work aesthetically
it is morally repugnant, especially in the light of the Holocaust.
It has been said that had Shakespeare been writing today he would never
have created Shylock and perhaps the same can be said of Dickens and
Fagin. Any modern adaptation has to deal with the problem of the anti-semitism
in Oliver Twist. The David Lean film and the Lionel Bart musical both
'solve' the problem by avoiding it and Fagin is not executed. The anti-Semitism
of the book can either be played down or exposed as part of the system
of repression. It has seemed to us more challenging to expose rarther
than to avoid the problem. It is interesting that even Dickens himself
toned down the language in later editions, substituting the name Fagin
for the more frequent use of 'the Jew' in the first edition.
Once Fagin ceases to be a supernatural force for evil it is possible
to continue the social analysis of the first hundred pages into the second half
of the story. This has basically been our approach.
Brownlow, for example,
is made to bear the responsibility for rejecting his own daughter and causing
her death and Oliver's unhappy childhood. Once Fagin is recognised as a flawed
scapegoat rather than a demon, Brownlow's hand in his downfall becomes less
than honorable. However, the play follows the book in not romanticising crime.
Crime may be the only alternative to starvation for Fagin's gang but it is no
substitute for a proper place in society. The violence and suspicion with which
the criminals must live corrupts and destroys them. The book (and play) end
with Oliver stating "I am truly happy" but the reader has the impression of
tragedy.
OLIVER TWIST is a marvellous ressource for those who would adapt it for the stage.
It is dramatic, comic and tragic. The famous Polish director Grotowski said that
a production of a classic play or novel only justifies itself if it confronts
the original. We have tried to confront the contradictions in OLIVER TWIST
and concentrate on the sense of injustice that lies at the book's core. We also
aim to capture the theatricality and showmanship that makes OLIVER TWIST one
of the most popular stories ever told.
Paul Stebbings and Phil Smith, London 1994
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