TEHRAN – The musical play “Oliver Twist,” directed by Hossein Parsaei, has returned on stage in Tehran after eight years.

The well-received show, first performed in 2017 with 120 performances at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall, is now being performed at the Tennis Stadium of the Enghelab Sports Complex, ILNA reported.

The show is based on the play “Oliver!” by Lionel Bart, a musical, adapted for the stage from the 1838 novel “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens about the hardships of young Oliver in 19th-century London.

More than 150 actors, singers, and technical staff are involved, combining experienced performers with new talents.

Hootan Shakiba, Behnoush Tabatabaei, Banipal Shomon, Amirkaveh Ahaninjan, Siamak Ansari, and Kazem Sayahi are among the main actors.

In this performance, Rayan Sarlak embodies Artful Dodger, and two teenage actors, Parham Gholamloo and Arsham Jahanpanah, play the role of Oliver Twist on different nights.

“Oliver!” was the first musical adaptation of a famous Charles Dickens work to become a stage hit. The plot of Dickens's original novel is considerably simplified for the purposes of the musical, with Fagin being represented more as a comic character than as a villain, and large portions of the latter part of the story being completely left out. 

“Oliver Twist” is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens. It was originally published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and as a three-volume book in 1838. The story follows the titular orphan, who, after being raised in a workhouse, escapes to London, where he meets a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin, discovers the secrets of his parentage, and reconnects with his remaining family.

“Oliver Twist” unromantically portrays the sordid lives of criminals and exposes the cruel treatment of the many orphans in England in the mid-19th century.

In an early example of the social novel, Dickens satirizes child labor, domestic violence, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan whose account of working as a child laborer in a cotton mill was widely read in the 1830s. 

It is likely that Dickens's own experiences as a youth contributed as well, considering he spent two years of his life in the workhouse at the age of 12 and subsequently missed out on some of his education.

“Oliver Twist” has been the subject of numerous adaptations, including the 1948 film of the same name, starring Alec Guinness as Fagin; a highly successful musical, “Oliver!” (itself adapted into the Oscar-winning 1968 film), and Disney's 1988 animated feature film “Oliver & Company”.

SS/SAB