Based on the Dickens’ “Oliver Twist”, “Unexpected Twist” sees a modern take on the story, focused around the story of teenager Shona (Drew Hylton). With her single dad (Thomas Vernal) struggling to make ends meet, Shona is dragged into a violent gang, dealing drugs and stealing wallets – after all, you’ve got to pick a pocket or two.
This is an acapella musical – that is, there is no orchestra and no sound effects. Instead, all the music is made by the actors, with some very impressive beatboxing – so impressive, in fact, that it is easy to forget that you’re not listening to a backing track at times. The music does not recreate the songs familiar to us from “Oliver!”, with new songs used to tell the story. The songs, however, are not that catchy (although there is some terrific rapping from Alexander Lobo Moreno as artful dodger Tino), and they all sound fairly similar (perhaps due to the acapella nature). There is some fantastic singing on display though, especially from Hylton, whose voice was a particular highlight.
The story mirrors that of Oliver Twist very closely. Teacher Miss Cavani takes on the Nancy-like role of Shona’s mentor, who faces problems of her own in the form of an abusive boyfriend. Meanwhile, Polly Lister’s Nan mirrors the character of Fagin, running the gang’s business and organising the drug deals. This is an interesting concept (thought up by author Michael Rosen, whose 2018 novel is the basis for this play), but the play feels the need to spell this out as though it wasn’t already clear enough. It is obvious to anyone who knows the story – although maybe the idea is to educate school children on the story of Oliver Twist, in which case, I imagine the show achieves its aim.
Whilst the show appears to be edgy and gritty on the surface, it isn’t at all, with the idea of “gang violence” the sort that you might see on a CBBC show. This is not a criticism though – it makes the show perfect for children, and there were many children in the audience who were clearly enjoying the twists and turns of the tale. Everything is wrapped up neatly at the end, which definitely doesn’t mirror real life, but provides a decent ending for the kids.
The show ended with an “improvised song” (which didn’t appear to be particularly improvised to me), with a member of the audience “conducting” the voice orchestra of actors, although this just all fell a bit flat and was probably unnecessary. The cast were encouraging the audience to get their phones out to film, so it’s obviously a publicity technique – and one that probably works quite well, as the acapella stuff is very impressive! It’s just that, at the end of a 2 hour production, everyone in the audience had become immune to the “wow” factor.
Overall, this is a decent production, and technically a great show that is let down by a lacklustre story. Although I’m out of the age range to appreciate it properly (it’s definitely aimed at school children) so take what I say with a pinch of salt.
Tom Morley, March 2023
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