If spending too much time with your own family this holiday season is beginning to look daunting, Ovation! Performing Arts Northwest’s production of “Oliver!” might go a long way to making you feel a bit better.
It could, after all, be worse.
You could be young Oliver Twist.
The island-based performance group’s latest revival of the award-winning musical, based on Charles Dickens’ 1838 classic, features Austin Smith, 13, as the titular plucky orphan, who the story follows from the poverty and misery of a workhouse through the seedy London underworld and budding criminal misadventures with the likes of some of the most storied personalities in fiction.
Despite the story’s depictions of depressingly squalid living conditions, child labor, thievery and even murder, the show is truly an appropriate one for the holidays, director Ron Milton said, because it is principally about family: both the one we’re born with (or not, in Oliver’s case) and the one we make for ourselves along the way, no matter how rough they may be.
“What is it everyone’s really looking for in the show?” he asked. “Love.
“Fagin cares about the kids,” Milton explained. “He uses, them, sure, but he also cares about them. And, to have somebody who cares about you is really important in the world and it has been since the first group of people got together around a campfire.”
Fagin, played by Matty McCaslin, is a crafty elder outlaw, the leader of a gang of juvenile thieves with whom Oliver takes up after becoming homeless and hungry in London.
The saga begins shortly after he runs away from an abusive apprenticeship, when Oliver meets a cunning pickpocket his own age, the Artful Dodger (played by Ethan Macey Cushman). Dodger takes his new buddy in as one of the delinquent family of thieves. There, he becomes involved in some more advanced criminal dealings, and meets the tragic Nancy (Hannah Berkimer) and her abusive boyfriend, the notoriously vicious Bill Sykes (Ron Mackley).
The production relies heavily on a large number of junior performers, Milton said, and cuts them no slack on stage, either.
“It’s a great community-type show,” he said. “It uses lots of kids.
“At one point, they have four numbers back-to-back-to-back-to-back,” he added. “And they’re huge numbers.”
Ultimately, the story leaves the audience with the notion that there is nothing that cannot be survived and overcome with the love of friends and family.
“[Even] with all the negative energy that’s going on around here in the world, there are survivors everywhere,” Milton said. “I wanted to do a show that showed that you can get through rough times and you don’t have to turn evil. That you can get through tough times, and one of the thing that gets you through those are your relationships with the people around you.”
Fagin, though a bit of a scalawag, truly does care about the kids in his gang, Milton said.
“Nancy is with a terrible person,” he added. “But, in her mind, he cares about her. And people will go to extraordinary lengths just to be with somebody that cares about them, or even just that they think cares about them.”
“Most of the major characters go through a change,” McCaslin agreed. “It’s really about change, and a little about redemption and a little about some forgiveness — not only of other people, but also for yourself.”
Caroline Pierce, the show’s musical director and accompanist, said the show may not be specifically about the holidays, but it definitely leaves viewers with “a warm and fuzzy feeling” in the end.
“There’s so many dynamics going on that it just made it really fun,” she said.
Smith, the young lead, agreed, saying that what attracted him to the production was the clear moral message.
“It has these elements that are fun and playful,” he said. “But, at the same time, there’s also that feeling that there’s looming danger coming
“If you feel alone in the world, there’s always somebody who’s there for you,” he added.
Tickets — $27 per person, $22 for seniors, students, teachers and military and $19 for youth 12 and younger — can be purchased at Winslow Drug (cash/check only), online at www.brownpapertickets.com or by phone at 1-800-838-3006, ext. 1.
Visit www.ovationmtb.com to learn more.
Ovation! Performing Arts Northwest (formerly Ovation! Musical Theatre Bainbridge) celebrated its 12th anniversary this year. Its mission is to create and present quality theatrical and arts education experiences by and for the community, with a great emphasis on youth education programs.
“In a way, it’s kind of like a Christmas gift to the community,” Milton said of the group’s latest production.
“It really does make you feel good when you’re nice to other people, when you take a moment to do something that’s not necessary, but nice.”
Want some more?
What: Ovation! Performing Arts Northwest’s holiday production of “Oliver!”
When: The show runs Friday, Dec. 4 through Sunday, Dec. 20 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays.
Where: Bainbridge High School Theatre (9330 NE High School Road).
Admission: $27 per person, $22 for seniors, students, teachers and military and $19 for youth 12 and younger at Winslow Drug, www.brownpapertickets.com or 1-800-838-3006, ext. 1.
