Dance

Fagin’s Twist

Tramway, Glasgow


Mary Brennan

FOUR STARS

There’s more than one twist in this Dickens of a tale, revisited by choreographer/director Tony Adigun with an eye to present-day relevance. This  “now-as-then” reminder is unstintingly delivered by the eight members of Avant Garde Dance whose energy and technique matches every fast-moving step in Adigun’s concept and exhilarating mix of movement styles. Their command of both contemporary and hip hop dynamics, with whirlwind crossovers between them, never loses its edge.

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Even when bodies are at their most elastic – lithe and slippery or spinning into acrobatic power moves – there is precision and detailed finesse. Adigun, however, intends that this attention-grabbing dance will do more than entertain. He means it to thrust Dickens’s core preoccupation centre-stage, namely the poverty that pushed youngsters into lives of crime and violence.
The first half is Fagin’s own back-story: orphaned, sent to the workhouse – where he meets Bill Sykes – Fagin soon learns to use his quick wits to escape. Back on the streets, what can he do? Pick pockets, since he has acquired no other skills. When Oliver arrives, it seems that history is repeating itself, but there’s a savage twist that shifts away from Dickens’s original. This Oliver (a nifty, feral Jemima Brown) has a greedy, malevolent side that tricks and betrays everyone from kindly Nancy, to uber-aggressive Bill Sykes and Fagin himself – the latter (Joshua James Smith), having whispered out a midnight monologue full of unexpected social conscience, is fatally hoodwinked by a lad he looked after and trusted... So much for honour among thieves. Dickens’s ill-lit streets, high nooks and low dens, all lurk in a set design that, like the music, shape-shifts with a compelling cinematic flow. Can we have some more, please?

READ MORE: Theatre review: Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow