Musical Adaptation of ‘Oliver Twist

TEHRAN –(Iranart)- ranian theater director Hossein Parsaei will stage a musical adaptation of the famous novel ‘Oliver Twist’, written by English author Charles Dickens, at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall soon.

A big production, the play will include over 150 actors. Parsaei is now rehearsing with the cast and the huge décor of different parts of old London is also being built, Mehr News Agency reported.

The story is of the orphan Oliver Twist, who is born in a workhouse and is then sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker. He escapes from there and travels to London, where he meets the Artful Dodger, a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal, Fagin.

It is a notable novel for its unromantic portrayal by Dickens of criminals and their sordid lives, as well as for exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century.

In the social novel, Dickens satirizes the hypocrisies of his time, including child labor, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. It is likely that Dickens’s own youthful experiences contributed to the development of the story.

The classic novel has been the subject of numerous adaptations for various media, including a highly successful musical play, and the multiple Academy Award-winning 1968 motion picture. Disney also put its spin on the novel with the movie in 1988.

Parsaei has adopted his work from the 1968 drama musical film ‘Oliver!’, directed by Carol Reed. The play in fact is a tribute to the world musical movies.