EPISODE 446: IT'S A FINE LIFE
My Nephew is a Star, and Charles Dickens is not always a Good Carol for Christmas.
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
I’m in Chicago this week seeing family for the holidays. And on Friday my parents and I went to see my nephew Patrick in the Marriott Lincolnshire production of Oliver!
He is fantastic. Here’s what the Chicago Sun-Times had to say:
Patrick Scott McDermott’s Artful Dodger — the young pickpocket who brings Oliver into Fagin’s gang of child thieves — is also excellent. McDermott gives Dodger the bountiful exuberance of a kid who doesn’t yet understand how high the odds are stacked against him. McDermott’s Dodger is savvy, but that savviness is both humorous and heartbreaking because the audience knows what Dodger doesn’t: No child should be this sophisticated this young.
Patrick is 10, which I thought might be a little too young for the world-wise Dodger. But the Times review is spot on; having such a talented energetic boy (#prouduncle) play the role both makes the first act more fun – Patrick provides a Peter Panesque entrance into the world of these thieves – and then makes all the awful things that happen around him in the second act so much more scary. You see the discomfort on his face when Bill attacks Nancy; it’s the heartbreaking look of a child who doesn’t know how to react to something truly awful happening before him and is really afraid.
Then there’s the moment at the very end when all the boys are fleeing. He just stands there looking at Fagin, his father figure, really: “What do I do?” he asks, and it’s clear what he means is, Where are you and I going? But Fagin’s not up for that. He runs off, leaving Dodger to be immediately taken by the police. He gets in a quip at the end, but it’s all pretty much a nightmare.
It’s such a strange play, Oliver! It’s Dickens, so people think a) bigger than life characters; b) lots of laughs; and c) perfect for Christmas. But this is no Christmas Carol. This is kids starved and worked to death, sold, beaten, used. The emotional core of the story is a woman trapped in an abusive relationship whose big song (which she sings not once but twice) is about how she will never leave him “As Long as He Needs Me”. (Wow is that hard to sit through, although the actress is outstanding.)
At the end Nancy’s choked to death in front of us, then Bill is shot. Meanwhile Fagin abandons the children and Dodger’s maybe going to hang. (Fagin actually kids earlier about this very thing happening if the children are ever arrested.)
So, you know, Merry Christmas, everybody!
What’s really annoying: every terrible thing that happens to Oliver – and there are many – turns out in the absurdly best possible way. When he asks for more food, his nightmare workhouse sell him to a business where he is actually fed . There’s an abusive employee there, but before he can do any harm Oliver escapes and stumbles upon the Artful Dodger, who takes him into this Peter Pan-like life led by Gandalf. (I swear to the Baby Jesus Sir Ian McKellen played Fagin; check the Sun-Times photos.)
Later Oliver gets arrested for pickpocketing, but instead of being sent back to the workhouse (or hung) the accuser takes him into his home (where he will soon figure out this is actually the grandson he didn’t know he had).
Basically Oliver is the kid who grows up, has a C average but his father gets him into Oxford, he goes on to become prime minister and fights for Brexit i.e.
The crazy thing? When I was a sophomore in high school, I was Oliver. Never been in a play, just had this crazy idea to try out and got the part. And though I was way older than the adorable 8-year-old who played Oliver the other night, I was just as clueless as he is to how desperately sad this play is.
Honestly, I was just worried about singing “Where is Love” on key (the rising tones to “where” are so hard, you guys).
But I think the play wants us to be like Oliver in the end, to ignore the Shakespearean levels of catastrophe all around us and slip into that end-of-Annie groove of just being glad the orphan gets a nice family. After the stage goes black the cast rushes back up singing “Consider Yourself” once again. Maybe if I hadn’t watched cops carry my nephew away I would have been down for that, but mostly, no thank you.
Actually the whole play I kept thinking, rather than trying to downplay the darkness, what would it be like to lean into it? Like, what if you set the play at an ICE detention center for children who have been removed from their parents? They live in cages on stage, and sit and watch Oliver as he is sold; look with hunger as he gets fed; cower when he is threatened; cheer when he escapes.
Nancy’s a Dreamer who has made a life for herself; Bill’s an ICE agent who steals from the families he arrests. Maybe Dodger’s Nancy’s cousin. And when he meets Oliver they free the boys from their cages, and they become part of Fagin’s crew until the end, when they are each individually captured again and thrown back into their cages.
When Oliver’s grandfather (or maybe the white guy who had employed Oliver’s mother before she was arrested) carries him away at the end, with Nancy lying there on the ground, Oliver looks back to those boys and stretches out a hand to them. Then he is gone; they quietly sing themselves to sleep--“Consider Yourself”, of course, the song about being accepted as one of the family--while the stage fades to black.
Too dark? Sorry. How about a GIF of a kangaroo hugging a person to ease the pain.
And now for something completely different…
THREE TWEETS about the UK ELECTION
So while we’re trapped in endless debates with a cast that somehow keeps growing (how is that possible?), the UK is two weeks into an election campaign of their own.
In their honor, three tweets for them, starting with One that is Very Inside Baseball (er, Cricket?)—the former Speaker of the House in Britain saying the name of one of the members set to the Queen song “Pressure”:
Extra Points for the Advent Calendar reference:
Even more extra points for the amount of fun packed into this Boris Johnson reworking of Succession:
In the U.S. it’s also Thanksgiving week. So it seems only fair…
THREE TWEETS BONUS ROUND: THANKSGIVING EDITION
A food tweet I empathically endorse:
The Joys of Family:
And Forget the Parade, this is Thanksgiving in New York City:
READ/WATCH
I’ll have plenty to say about The Crown next week – God it’s good.
For your Thanksgiving holiday/Waiting-in-line-before-stores-open-Friday-morning-why-God-why enjoyment, interviews with Josh O’Connor, who will make you love Prince Charles, Erin Doherty, who makes me want a whole spinoff show about Princess Anne, and the story of the unidentified woman who shouts at Prime Minister Harold Wilson in episode 3.
(I wanted an interview with Jason Watkins, who is masterful as Wilson, but none to be found as of yet. But after you’ve watched ep 3 (and not before), you should read this.)
Oh, and there’s also an interview with Tobias Menzies, whose Prince Philip is somehow both more mellow and more of an ass, and absolutely captivating.
Wherever and however you are spending your holiday, may the food be tasty and the company great.
Or may they at the least have good wi-fi. :) (The Mandalorian streams great!)
Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving and a very safe Black Friday. For those venturing out into the mobs, remember, the craziness is all artificial. There will always be another copy of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order!