The American Drama Group Europe Presents

OLIVER TWIST. BROWNLOW: You are no daughter of mine! AGNES: Let me in, let me in! Give me By Paul Stebbings & Phil Smith based on the See, see this portrait, this beautiful, pure and sanctuary, please God. Mercy! mercy! For novel by Charles Dickens. Original score by innocent girl upon this canvas, why that is my pity's sake! (The lid of the coffin opens and Mrs Thomas Johnson. daughter! CORNEY appears. The branches have been CAST: Five performers, two men three women. AGNES: That IS me, father. I am your loving attached to the scaffold to give the sense of One to play Fagin, Mrs CORNEY, fox, a and dutiful daughter. countryside throughout the workhouse scenes). policeman. BROWNLOW You hussy! Look at your MRS CORNEY: Apply here between the hours Two to play Oliver, Agnes. swollen stomach! Has my daughter a stomach of nine and noon tomorrow. The workhouse is Three to play Nancy, Charlie Bates, Old Sally, swollen with shame? No. No. Has my daughter closed!. (Tries to shut the coffin, AGNES grabs Mrs Grimwig, workhouse boy. fornicated with a married man? No, no. Such a the lid). Four to play Artful Dodger, Dick the thing would be beyond the wildest fantasy of AGNES: No, please let me enter for the sake of workhouse boy. my pure and angelic daughter. She would not the child! Five to play Bill Sikes, Lord Brownlow, the take the good and ancient name of Brownlow CORNEY: Nine O'clock! Beadle. and drag it through the mud of scandal! Where AGNES: We shall be dead at nine! As the audience enter they see a scaffold and is my Agnes? CORNEY: Dead or alive, you'll be treated the gallows on the stage. They are a crowd arriving AGNES: She’s here, helpless before you. (She same! We don't favour the living here! At nine! for a public execution in 1840's London. throws her self down and grabs his ankles). AGNES: Wait! This, this! (Holds out locket). Among them are a flower seller. She banters BROWNLOW Get away from me! Take your CORNEY: Gold? with the audience – looking forward to the fingers off me, my flesh creeps to think of your AGNES: Gold. arrival of Fagin for hanging. hands upon him that impregnated you with his CORNEY: Let me see! (CORNEY grabs the FAGIN is dragged on and stripped of his bastard child,! locket but AGNES has a spasm and cannot distinctive costume, these along with his AGNES: This is your grandchild, feel, feel, he release it). toasting fork are lain on the coffin awaiting kicks against my belly. AGNES: Ah, the child is coming! Fagin's corpse after the hanging.) BROWNLOW (Pulling hands away) Away, CORNEY: Damn you, you'd better come in! FLOWER SELLER: Hang the Devil! Wicked away! Never lay your hands on me again. I And at this hour of the night! (Pulls her in by Jew! Swing him! retch to think of it. Out, out woman, demon out the hand) Ah, no wedding ring! Sinner! BROWNLOW: Wait! This wicked and evil and never return to darken my door again! (Inside the workhouse) dog, brought here by true justice, to this fatal AGNES: Lost, lost! (Going to door which is the CORNEY: Sally, Sally! Where are you, you old tree, did in his lifetime hold an unnatural sway coffin.). fool? over the minds of young people. Including my BROWNLOW: Wait! SALLY (enters with empty bottle, drunk) Shall dear Grandson here, Oliver Twist. Fagin, you AGNES: Papa? I fetch another bottle? It's almost dry. My, (of have one last chance in your life. Use it! Speak BROWNLOW You gave me this, Agnes, it rain-soaked AGNES) she's wet. Wish my bottle to the young people here, speak to the poor contains your picture. were as wet as her. citizens. Confess your evil crimes. Beg AGNES: Yes! CORNEY: Listen, you half dead crone, fetch forgiveness from our Christian God above BROWNLOW: It's of no use to me now, young the Beadle. I want the Beadle! before it is too late. hussy, I would not recognise it! (Throws it to SALLY: (She nods) I want a bottle, she wants FAGIN: I will speak to these people but I have AGNES who takes it.). the Beadle.(Mutters and exits). nothing to confess. It is not I should die here AGNES:You are cruel, sir! Cruel! May you get AGNES: I feel it! I am going to burst! today, but him – Lord Brownlow, if you what you deserve!! (Exits through Coffin). CORNEY: That's God's way, woman. The please!! It is he, murderer and hypocrite, that (The servants 'tick tock' like the slow sound of a pain's your punishment. (SALLY returns with led so many of us to an early death. large clock.) the BEADLE). Brownlow: This is outrageous!! This is BROWNLOW: (Puts head in hands and BEADLE: What's to do, Mrs CORNEY, what’s preposterous!! Hang this wicked Jew!! staggers.) O, Sweet Lord, what have I done? to do? Can't a man take his tea in peace?? (He Flower seller: Hang him! Hang him!! My daughter, my only child, my one blood, my has a tray of tea in his hand) Fagin: O, you want a little entertainment, do one family. What have I done? O, Agnes. (Goes CORNEY: Mr Bumble, I've a woman with no you? You’ll laugh soon enough when I’m to coffin/door and shouts through it). Agnes! husband here as is about to have a baby. We dangling on that rope!! Agnes! Come back! Agnes! Forgive me, let us require the Parish Beadle (said with pride) to Flower seller: Hang him! Hang him! all be forgiven. Agnes! (Goes out and down to register the child. Fagin: Wait!! If I am to die I have the right to audience) BEADLE: Oh the burden of office, Mrs speak!! So, listen!! It was ten years ago that HE FAGIN: Look at him! Trying to make us feel CORNEY. The burden of responsibility. (She committed HIS first crime … ten years from sorry for him! That's the very murderer there! wipes his brow and sighs). I must say, Mrs that first savagery to this last – ten years ago…. Now watch the consequence of h4s crime! CORNEY, you look the very picture of rude Since god was out of his heaven and Lucifer Agnes fled through the storm, life in her belly health. May I tweak your cheek? rode the winter clouds and rattled at the doors but death close behind, hard upon her heals! CORNEY: (Leaning towards him then pulling of Lord Brownlow and his doomed daughter ALL SING: back) Mr Bumble, there are ladies present. Agnes… Nature bled on Heath and Moor, Nature red in BEADLE: I see no ladies, Ma’m. Merely (OLIVER dresses as AGNES and she forms a tooth and claw, paupers, dregs and dross. tableau with her father - Brownlow - a Only seen by the eye of the storm CORNEY: (To Sally) Stop gawping and do SERVANT holds a portrait of AGNES aloft Blackened sky, rolling thunder your women's thing! (SALLY grunts and and MRS GRIMWIG, LORD BROWNLOW'S Nature's laughter, see her wander attends to AGNES by lowering the coffin and Housekeeper, hovers ready to open the door. Wonder where she can find shelter laying AGNES on it for a bed and pulling a The door is in fact the coffin which has been Helter skelter through the storm sheet over her). You shall be able to return to stood on its end. The scene is played at floor Raising eyes for help from heaven your tea and comfort very soon, Mr Bumble. level watched by FAGIN. EXECUTIONER But the eye of the storm is blind BEAD: You are an angel, Mrs CORNEY, a exits.). To pity and fear regular angel. FAGIN: The story of… And the rain drowns her tears CORNEY: And you are a Devil to flash your All: (Sing) Oliver Twist! The clouds'swirl above eyes so at a widowed woman. SCENE TWO. Where is hope, where is rest, where is love? BEAD: Tis nature, Ma’am, nature. And not to AGNES kneeling before her father, LORD (AGNES staggers to the coffin/door and be denied. BROWNLOW, then sudden action). knocks). AGNES: It comes, mercy! (SALLY has lit her BROWNLOW: Throw her out, Mrs Grimwig! Wind is moaning, Wind is moaning, Wind is pipe and has her beneath AGNES's AGNES: (Screams) No! No, I am your moaning.... Aaah. skirts.) daughter! Oliver Twist www.english- theatre.cz page 1 / 8 CORNEY: Sally, put down that pipe and help SALLY: (hidden) Agnes! We're doing them some good the woman! BEADLE: Sh - hush. Did the crone see or hear Our reward will come from God. (Losing BEADLE: Mrs CORNEY, you have a silver anything? (SALLY has in fact overheard tempers). tongue! (Flicks two sugar cubes into the air and everything as the audience can see but But do they give a sod? catches them in his mouth, pours in a little milk CORNEY shakes her head). Let us be The poor never thank us, they whine and beg and then fills his mouth with tea from the philosophical, M'am and keep this golden and steal teapot). Quite refreshed, quite restored, quite locket and let the secret of the child's birth die What else my friends could we possibly feel robust and ready to perform my official and with his mother. We cannot go a wasting time Out that the poor are the problem unofficial duties! (Squirting tea as he speaks). on paupers. Will this scrap of a child live? The poor are the problem I shall fetch the Parish register, call me when (Sounds of child's cries throughout this.) The ragged rabble in the street the child is born. (Exits). CORNEY: He seems healthy enough. The filthy urchin at our feet AGNES: Agh! Mercy!! BEADLE: Hah! Another burden on our charity. The poor are our problem CORNEY: Well? Born selfish! Well. I have the register and I Food, hope and charity SALLY: Wipes hands on her filthy skirt)The shall name him. A boy you say? Rewards for the lazy! Doctor says that it ain't safe to deliver unless I CORNEY: He is. Food, hope and charity scrubs me hands with alcohol. BEADLE: I am strictly alphabetical in these Rewards for the lazy! CORNEY: You're as foul as the night. (Woman matters. The last orphan was an S ~so I called Your selfish spineless pity screams) Can't you tie a rag around the thing's him Swubble. This thing is a therefore a T - Will ruin our towns and cities mouth? I'll have a headache soon! (pondering the problem of a name the BEADLE Jesus said the poor are always here SALLY: There. there. Push! Push! Must I do notices the way he is twisting his pen in But we my friends shall make them disappear! everything!! (Gags woman, pulls her legs apart. thought) - Twist I shall call him, Oliver Twist. (During this song a routine with all the Swigs from alcohol bottle and breathes on her CORNEY: Oh, Mr Bumble, what a poet lies performers dressed as large coins, except for hands). All disinfected now. Where's its little inside your mighty form! (Snuggling up to him. OLIVER who is a groat. During the routine head? (SALLY delivers the child, then nurses OLIVER cries. The BEADLE uses the OLIVER/GROAT is picked on by the larger the bottle instead of the child - CORNEY grabs opportunity to sneakily relieve MRS CORNEY coins. On the final line the larger coins throw the child. Sounds of child's cries.) of the golden chain). OLIVER/GROAT into the coffin from where (Next lines sung) SALLY: (Knocking and entering) 'scusing me. he is rescued by FAGIN:) AGNES: Can I see the child? There is work to be done. (Sticks empty gin FAGIN: So Oliver Twist grew up in the CORNEY: It's a boy! bottle in child's mouth). Workhouse. If only the child had died at birth I BEADLE: It's a boy! CORNEY: Well, do it!! might be alive tomorrow, but it was not to be CORNEY: He would cry louder if he knew SALLY: O good lord, in heaven above, how is and Oliver Twist grew up to be a pale and what a world he was born into. it that things turn out so bad for the poor and sickly youth of nine years of age. He grew up in AGNES: I must tell you something. the vicious rich alike? the parish workhouse: , what an institution: CORNEY: I've no time for you! (Song: “It’s a shame.”) invented and organised for the systematic AGNES: I beg of you. SCENE THREE. murder of poor children by gradual starvation! BEADLE & CORNEY: We've no time for you! (ENTER all as CHORUS dressed with huge And they want to hang me for teaching a trade AGNES; He's richer than he seems! This coins that rest on their shoulders and to poor urchins! Murdering hypocrites! They've golden locket! create a fiscal halo around their heads.) got the wrong man! SALLY: (Waking) Gold? CHORUS sing: (The BEADLE enters and beckons on two (Next lines spoken.) The poor are the problem WORKHOUSE BOYS whose heads he clouts, (SALLY hides and listens). The poor are the problem the second boy ducking to avoid the blow.) AGNES: This child is not the poor child he The ragged rabble on the street BEADLE: Work. seems, the golden locket. Open it. the filthy urchin at your feet (The WORKHOUSE BOYS join OLIVER CORNEY: A picture, a painting of...you. The poor are our problem around the coffin. This is one of the coffins that AGNES Take it to, take it to- the boy's How shall we solve them? they are made to construct at the workhouse.) grandfather. He is a ...a respectable man, a How shall we find the firm resolve BOYS & OLIVER: (in rhythm). Two four six Lord. The will, the strength to break them eight. Two four six eight. Eight out of ten will CORNEY: A Lord? Is there a reward? And shake them be dead. Eight out of ten will be dead. Two four AGNES: oh yes! And force them six eight, two for six eight. Starved, burnt, CORNEY: Yes?!! To see: scalded, whipped. Two four six eight. Beaten, AGNES: In heaven! That work makes you happy, that work makes broken, left to die. Two for six eight out of ten, CORNEY: What? Is there no money in this? you free! two four six eight out of ten! Dead, dead, dead, AGNES: His grandfather is rich. To be poor is to be lazy. dead, dead, dead!Two four six eight out of ten. CORNEY: Where is his grandfather, who is it? But we feed them on our charity Two four six eight out ten. Two four six eight Who is this Lord, answer me! (Shaking And nearly give them luxury out of ten. Two four six eight out of ten. AGNES.) And all because we want to be BEADLE: Oh wonderful work, what a AGNES: Take the locket to... Seen to be good marvellous and improving philosophy! Aren't CORNEY: Speak, stupid woman - ah! Wake Seen to be good you boys grateful? up! Speak! Give me that bottle! (Dumps child To feed them food when they won't chop wood BOYS: (Working feverishly sanding and and seizes bottle - forces alcohol down Or put their hands polishing the coffin) Two four six eight. Thank AGNES's throat who chokes and dies)Speak, To an honest day's work you, Sir. One hundred, two hundred, two you stupid woman!! Ah, what! Dead! Mr We should chop them up and feed them to the thousand thank yous! Thank you. Thank you! Bumble! Turks! Thank you! BEADLE: (Enters) Is the child alive? Seen to be good BOY ONE (6'ICK): Please, Sir, I don't think I CORNEY: Yes. But the mother's dead. Seen to be good can work no more. BEADLE: A lesson to us all. A punishment To feed them food when they won't chop wood BEADLE: I beg your pardon? from God. She was not married you know. And, Or put their hands, BOY ONE: I. my chest..(coughs) I can't work Mrs CORNEY, neither am I. If you get my To an honest no more. meaning… We should chop them up and feed them to the BEADLE: No more! No more! You'll work no CORNEY: And the meaning of this, Mister Turks more when you are in your wooden bed deep in Bumble, according to the dead mother, is to But we can't do that and we won't do that the grave! What is life but work? Work prove the child's nobility. Hmm, see it has a For it must be understood that we're doing them illuminates! Work educates! Work liberates! name engraved upon it: Agnes. some good Work makes us free! Oliver Twist www.english- theatre.cz page 2 / 8 BOYS: (Chanted at double speed) Two four six CORNEY who hammers the soup bucket over it, master. (SALLY abases herself before eight educate and liberate. Two four six eight his head.) OLIVER, who is horrified and creeps out. ) eight out often are dead, eight out of ten are MRS CORNEY: Boy!! Fetch me the Beadle's OLIVER: I’ll be back for you, Sally, I’ll be dead to date. Hate Hate hate! (x8) (BEADLE whipping canes! back… (Exits.) turns. Sick boy keels over and collapses in a BEADLE: Come my dear, we have our duties (When SALLY sees OLIVER has gone:) coffin they have been polishing.) to perform. (To Mrs CORNEY) (Pulls OLIVER SALLY: All these years and never found a BEADLE: Get that boy out of that coffin! onto box & BEADLE raises his arm to cane good master. (Grasps her chest in agony.) I'll BOY: Please, Sir, I think he's dead, Sir. OLIVER in a violent duet with MRS never find one now. My heart! God save my BEADLE: Oh, very well – you might as well CORNEY. MRS CORNEY holds him by the soul and damn yours, Beadle! May I meet you leave him in there. Nail down the lid. But you'll biceps, he flexes with pride). in hell! (SALLY collapses and dies have to build an extra one for old Sowerby. BEADLE: This monster dared to ask for more! melodramatically.) We've ten to make today!You boys will do Why the very state would crumble were the BEADLE: (Poking head out of door) What the anything to get out of a bit of work! rabble to ask for more and receive it! He must dickens was that? OLIVER: Shall we take him to the cellar and be thrashed to within an inch of his life. CORNEY voice off: What is it, dear? bury him by the other boys? MRS CORNEY: Oh careful, my sweet, you BEADLE: Oh nothing, must have been my BEADLE: Oh running the workhouse are you might strain your arm. imagination. Great Scott, Mrs CORNEY, I have now, Oliver Twist? Sit still and wait for your BEADLE: O, no, my dear – this calms me! an imagination! Extraordinary! dinner. What a holiday you have here. It's a (MRS CORNEY and BEADLE deliver the first CORNEY: (Seductive) Oooh, Miss -ter Bum- regular hotel! Here comes your sweet Matron blows to OLIVER's rump. The blows make a bull..!! Come and use it on me!!! with your dinner. (Enter Mrs CORNEY with a tinny sound. MRS CORNEY retrieves. BOTH: Aah. bucket. of soup and a piece of salt. Bowls are OLIVER's bowl from the seat of his trousers BLACKOUT. handed to the surviving WORKHOUSE BOY, (They sing a duet as they beat OLIVER) FAGIN: Oh Oliver, Oliver. You think you are OLIVER and members of the front row of the BEADLE: O, Mistress Corney, you are so in escaping but you were only plunging deeper audience.) luck, luck, luck and deeper into a living Hell! The English MRS CORNEY: Bow - els!! CORNEY: You are an irresistible duck, duck, countryside! ALL SING: duck SCENE FOUR A hotel for the poor BEADLE/CORNEY: What an opportunity fort (OLIVER on the road to London. A green sheet A tavern for the lazy joining hearts in housekeeping is run across the stage horizontally as a hedge, Free tea, breakfast, supper, and dinner BEADLE: Don’t cry OLIVER runs on the spot while a bush moves Aah, for every beggar, criminal and sinner! CORNEY: Don’t sigh from one end of the hedge to the other to To hell with moral fashion BEADLE: Don’t sigh, but help me sing: simulate movement.Behind the hedge a man Cut down the general ration BEADLE: (Sings) You were meant for me rides by as if on a horse. Oliver approaches We may be bluff old buffers CORNEY: I was meant for you him): But by God the poor will suffer! BEADLE: Nature patterned you and when she OLIVER: Could you spare a penny for a loaf of We may be bluff old buffers had done bread, kind Sir? But by God the poor will suffer! CORNEY: I was all the sweet things rolled up MAN: What! Begging on the King's Highway? CORNEY: Lick, lick the salt. (Holds out the in one Young criminal you should be in the salt for the boys to lick). BOTH: We are a plaintive melody. workhouse! Away with you before I send for a BEADLE: I hope the soup is not too thick, Mrs That never sets us free. Beadle. In fact I think I shall. Beadle! Beadle! CORNEY? Oh we're content the angels must have sent us (Oliver runs off in terror. CORNEY: It's thin, Sir, very thin. (Ladles And they meant you just for me! CHORUS: (sing) water from bucket, the boys kneel in prayer and CORNEY: Sally! Fetch this wretch and throw Beadle , Beadle, Beadle, Beadle! hold out bowls. The boys quickly finish their him in the coal cellar! Come, my precious Run for your life food). I makes a profit with my food allowance. jewel, let us have tea. Coming to punish you BEADLE: I makes a profit with me coffins. We BEADLE: Will there be buttered muffins, Mrs Run run run run must have profit. C.? Run and run and run and run and (The boys weep from hunger.) CORNEY: Everything is melting, everything. Getting tired MRS CORNEY: The boys are crying again! (Exit hand in hand as SALLY drags OLIVER And getting thirsty BEADLE: Crying is good for boys, Mrs aside). Tired so tired Corney. It opens their lungs, washes their faces, SALLY: (Loud, swigging from her bottle). You The thirst is killing me! and exercises their eyes. Oh there's a little soup young criminal, asking for more, why one day Oliver! left, I think I might, with your permission... you'll hang for murder. (Forces spirits down his Hungry! Alone! Tired! Dying! Alone! Oliver! CORNEY: Oh it would be a pity to waste it, Mr throat). Listen Oliver, you've got to get away OLIVER: Should I die here tonight I commend Bumble. from here. They stole your birthright, the my soul to the angels and trust I meet my (BEADLE drinks from the bucket, while the Beadle and his woman. I saw it, you're a mother – Agnes - in the arms of loving Jesus. ghost of the dead WORKHOUSE BOY appears gentlemen, an aristocrat. Your mother's name CHORUS: (Bugle like) View halloo! View from the coffin.) was Agnes… halloo! Kill! Kill! Kill! (The sound of a hunt in OLIVER: Dick! Alive? OLIVER: Agnes? the distance starts, half realistic half musical. GHOST: Dead, starved. Oliver, Oliver do SALLY:Agnes! Put your hat on. Take this The fox appears and OLIVER runs in terror something! Ask for more. Ask for more. Ask penny. But get away tonight or they'll kill you. with him as the hunt approaches. OLIVER for more. Mark my word. (LOUD) Filthy beggar. In the collapses and sleeps.) OLIVER: (As Beadle drinks from the bucket) coal cellar with you! MALE HUNTSMAN: O, I say, look what I’ve Please, Sir. I want some more. OLIVER: I love you, Sally. got – a fox’s tail! What shall we do with it? ALL: MORE! SALLY: I love you too, Oliver, but you must FEMALE HUNTER: Let’s go home and have OLIVER: More. go!! (She improvises pretending to be Oliver’s tea and foxtail sandwiches! (BEADLE spits out soup and swings at voice in the cellar and her own voice (They ride off. Red dawn. Enter ARTFUL OLIVER with the bucket. Mrs CORNEY castigating him.)(Whispers to Oliver.) Good DODGER with a swagger of a whistle - he screams and OLIVER runs round her to escape luck and God bless you, little master! Go! Go! plays with the bird song. Luring a bird over he the BEADLE who charges after him. He's OLIVER: Thank you, Ma’am. knocks it off the hedge with a brick - reversing tripped up by the boy, frightened by the SALLY: (Finger to her lips) Get away now. our jolly expectations). GHOST and OLIVER escapes but he can only They'll kill you, mark my words. (Loud:) You DODGER: Stone the crows! Oh my oh my – run round in circles and finally into MRS stay in your cupboard!! (Whispered:) God bless two birds with one stone! Is you alive? 'Cos if you, Oliver. Enjoy your fortune when you find you're not I'll turn your pockets out if you don't Oliver Twist www.english- theatre.cz page 3 / 8 mind? (Does so). Uhuh – empty. And just a OLIVER: So many people! Why are they all BATES: Oooo! Pleased to me yooooooooo! penny (OLIVER stirs) Saints alive! (Vaults gathered here? Mister Twist, Charlie Bates is hhhhhonoured! over hedge) Is you a ghost? No offence, I was DODGER: They are here to see some fun. (BATES shakes OLIVER's hand and whirls just warming my hands in your pockets. Well- OLIVER: Is there to be a puppet show? him around and start to frisk him, turning his what else is pockets for? DODGER: No!! There's to be a hanging. A boy pockets inside out.) OLIVER: You are not Jesus? called Little Joe. DODGER: I've already searched out his DODGER: Hardly! (Pops back over hedge) OLIVER: A boy? They are going to kill a boy? character, Charlie! And you is not a ghost. Though you will join (The EXECUTIONER drags a boy, LITTLE (BATES and DODGER come to blows. FAGIN the 'ost of ghosts if you don't get a cup of hot JOE WHITE, to the scaffold, struggling). strikes them with his toasting fork.) coffee and a slice of bread inside you. Well, I OLIVER: He must be a terrible criminal that FAGIN: There, there, my dear. Take no notice ain't got the coffee but I do have the bread. the people hate him so. of my impolite boys! There's a sausage for you! Tara! (Produces the ham and makes a DODGER: (bitter) Oh yeah, he broke down a OLIVER: A sausage! I've never seen a sausage sandwich. OLIVER wolfs it down). door and stole two candlesticks and a silver before! OLI: You're as kind as Jesus. plate. What a villain. (LOUD) Hang 'im! BATES: We've better than sausages, we’ve got DODGER: Going to London? (CROWD OOH as blackout on stage.) That's gin! OLIVER: I hope so. the lad gone, and he never said a word. Clever FAGIN: Good boy, good boy! Have a swig of DODGER: Got anywhere to stay? dog. (Soft) Poor lad. Damn 'em. that!! OLIVER: No. OLIVER: Mr Dodger, I do believe you cry? (DODGER: Gin! (DODGER holds out a glass DODGER: Money? DODGER: Nah, nah, just the smoke in me to OLIVER who tastes it and chokes. FAGIN OLIVER: Oh yes! (Feels in his pocket for the eyes. Come on Oliver. Let's go home. pats his back.) penny, but it has gone, turns out his pocket) Oh OLIVER: Home? Oh I never had a home. FAGIN: Let's have the dice out! Do you play no... (DODGER leads OLIVER back to the stage dice, Oliver? DODGER: Whew. (Whistles - another bird which is now lit again but as HELL . FAGIN OLIVER: 0 no, sir! It wasn't allowed in the pops up, bounces along the wall and is calmly emerges.) Workhouse! stoned by a good shot from the DODGER. FAGIN: It's a Hell of a place; London. And FAGIN: You’ve not been properly educated! OLIVER and DODGER laugh themselves every Hell must have its Devil. Let's meet him DODGER: I'll teach him a lesson! silly.) now: the old gentleman, a master criminal, a (A game of dice, in which GATES loses to DODGER: I suppose you would want some perverter of justice, a beast that dips his bread DODGER and then DODGER kicks the place to sleep tonight? in the blood of Christian children, a murderer of table - in fact the open lid of the coffin - so that OLIVER: I do indeed. (DODGER palms the religion! That's right! Me! ( FAGIN is in the OLIVER wins.) stolen penny back into OLIVER's pocket.) same stripped down costume as for his DODGER: Oliver1 it's all yours! DODGER: Well, don’t worry, I know a execution. In the half light, lines of elastic hung BATES: But it was mine! respectable London gentleman, what'll give you with red and yellow handkerchiefs are pulled (FAGIN hits BATES.) a place to stay for nothink. Not a penny. Not horizontally across the stage. DODGER leads OLIVER: (holding the money) Nine! (He sees that my friend, the respectable gentleman OLIVER to the entrance of Fagin's Den, for the handkerchiefs) knows me - oh no. If we passed each other in which they use the trap of the scaffold.) FAGIN: We have better and quicker ways of the street we would walk staright by! (Makes a (DODGER knocks at the outer using special making pennies here. You admiring our pocket hand movement and winks at Oliver). Know knock.) handkerchiefs, Oliver? Eh, my dear, there are a what I mean? FAGIN: Who's there? good many of them, ain't there? They are a OLIVER: You talk very like a Christian. BATES: (to the door) Who goes there? drying after washing, my dear? DODGER: So you get my meaning? DODGER: Plummy and slam. OLIVER: Is this a laundry, sir? OLIVER: What meaning? BATES: It's the password! (BATES and DODGER Howl with laughter.) DODGER: Oh you are green. FAGIN: (Still fearful) Look and see! FAGIN: You could say that - we do launder OLIVER: No, my name is Oliver, Oliver Twist. (CHARLIE BATES opens the trapdoor a little.) goods! Speaking of which! Dodger! Have you DODGER: My Christian name is Jack, if I was DODGER: What are you messing about at, been working? a Christian! But the merry Old gentleman wot I Charlie! I've got a new boy! DODGER: Hard. Hard as nails. (Empties his talked about: he’s given me a devil of a name: BATES: (Shutting the trap) He's got a new boy, pocket of wallets and handkerchiefs.) the Artful Dodger. (Bows and holds out his hat Fagin! FAGIN: Good boy! (Lifting wallets) Pretty to OLIVER. OLIVER finds the penny in his FAGIN: My dear, hold him at the door! work, pretty work. (Running handkerchiefs pocket and is delighted. He offers the penny to Charlie, help me, help me into my things! through his hand.) How would you like to be DODGER.) My penny’s back! (CHARLIE BATES helps Fagin into a huge able to make things like the Dodger? Eh, DODGER: You keep it. coat and round wide brimmed hat. FAGIN arms Oliver? OLIVER: Oh thank you, Mister Dodger. himself with a toasting fork. He stokes fire and OLIVER: The Artful Dodger must be a fine (laughs) Pleased to meet you, Mister Dodger. lights illuminate the red and orange worker to make so many things! (Bows and laughs again). handkerchiefs as though they were flames. (BATES and DODGER in fits of laughter) DODGER: Come on, lad, London's waiting. FAGIN uses a devil shape on a stick to give his FAGIN: Clear these dice away! We've got a OLIVER: Is London beautiful? silhouette a demonic shape. Then gives the better game to play! DODGER: Oh yeah, it's like heaven but smoky. signal to BATES to let OLIVER and DODGER OLIVER: Is this like heaven, sir? (Three other cast members with cigars inside in. FAGIN takes a pose. CHARLIE BATES (BATES and DODGER laugh.) huge cigar tubes puffing smoke that will catch opens the door. OLIVER and DODGER enter. FAGIN: No, Oliver! In heaven there are no in the theatre lights- enter and sing LONDON When OLIVER sees the demonic silhouette he poor people! Now, you watch! You've got to SONG.) reels back. From it emerges the friendly face of have a go next Watch and learn! Watch the CHORUS: 0 London oh London town FAGIN.) Dodger, he’s the master craftsman! (FAGIN London town is falling down OLIVER: Ah! The devil!! picks up glasses, book and stick and pretends to But it's all they've ever known FAGIN: Who have we here? be a rich man walking in town. DODGER and Yes, it's all they've known DODGER: This is him, Fagin; my friend Oliver BATES attempt to pickpocket him. BATES Yes, it's all they've ever blessed known. Twist. fails, but DODGER succeeds spectacularly. The beggars in the street offend our gaze BATES: Oliver Twist! OLIVER' finds the game hilarious.) The Poor Law Act got in their way FAGIN: Hahaha! Oliver Twist! Welcome, OLIVER: We won! We won! (Yawns. They all And it's all they've ever known, etc. welcome! My dear, my dear, come in! What a yawn.) (DODGER leads OLIVER into the audience surprise! I hope to have the honour of your FAGIN: My dear, you're overtired. which is suddenly lit.) lasting friendship. BATES' It's the gin. OLIVER: Pleased to meet you , sir. Oliver Twist www.english- theatre.cz page 4 / 8 FAGIN: Mister Bates, show Oliver Twist to his FAGIN: And we'll have sausages when you get OLIVER with a truncheon) Wasting police brand new bed. back! time, that’s a fine of one shilling or seven days BATES: Come along with me… OLIVER: Back? in jail! Come on, boy! FAGIN:(to OLIVER:) You're safe with us, FAGIN: 0, you must learn in the fresh air! It's BROWNLOW: Can't you see he's unconscious! Oliver Twist. Safe as the Bank of England. good for your cheeks! (Tweaks Oliver's POLICEMAN: Please don't interfere, sir. OLIVER: Thank you, sir. cheeks.- (POLICEMAN shakes OLIVER who mumbles FAGIN: get some rest – we’ll need your talents DODGER: Come on, Oliver! something.) in the morning. FAGIN: And I want him back!! POLICEMAN: Roger Mist? (to audience) You, FAGIN: (Once OLIVER has gone:) What (DODGER, BATES and OLIVER exeunt.) witnesses? Do any of you know this boy's happened with Little Joe? Did he talk before FAGIN: And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is name? Oliver Twist! See! The boy's a hardened he... (grabs scarf round DODGER's throat and time for us to become reacquainted with our old liar! lifts it as if it is the rope hanging him.) hypocritical and murderous friend – Lord BROWNLOW: He can't speak properly! He's DODGER: Nothing. Not a word. They asked Brownlow – some nine years have past since groggy! him if he had anythink to say, but he kept his we saw him – nine years since we saw him and POLICEMAN: Loitering on the public trap shut! his daughter Agnes… highway! That’s a fine of twenty shillings or FAGIN: It’s a pity the hangman didn’t keep his (LORD BROWNLOW appears in the street, forty days in the jail! trap shut. Here's a sixpence for your work looking at old books at a stall. FAGIN retires BROWNLOW: What about solving a real today, Dodger. Clever dog, little Joe, to die so behind the scaffold to watch). crime, constable? What about the criminals who quiet. Clever dog, Little Joe, to die so quiet. It's DODGER :(Spotting BROWNLOW) Ooh look, tried to steal this valuable book? an excellent thing, for our trade - hanging. God a warm pocket! Are your hands cold, Oliver? POLICEMAN: Attempted thievery of an article bless the government , eh? (bitterly) Always got OLIVER: Na, thank you, Dodger. Quite warm. of more than five pounds! That´s twenty years the welfare of poor folk like us at heart. Dead DODGE: And you, Charlie? in jail or transportation to the colonies! How dogs don't bark. Dead boys don't tell tales. BATES: Proper freezing cold. much does the book cost? (DODGER and BATES are now settling down DODGE: You'd better warm them in some BROWNLOW: Damn and blast this book! The to sleep. They exchange uneasy glances.) pockets! real criminal has already escaped! I don't know FAGIN:(sings while checking the boys) Clever BATES: (Sneezes)Or I'll catch a cold! how much it costs. In the rush I didn't have dogs never speak DODGER: Then you'll need - time....I forgot to pay for it. Always lying here at your feet DODGE & BATES: A handkerchief. Ha ha! POLICEMAN: And you expect me to act on Clever dogs never cheat DODGE: Watch and learn Mr Green. the evidence of a book thief? The hand that let's them eat (They go ~p to 8ROWNLOW and pick his BROWNLOW: WHAT! WHAT! Do you know Clever dogs never bark at their master pocket, Charlie BATES pretending to be a blind who I am!!!! I am Lord Brownlow!! Clever dogs bark and sound the alarm boy as decoy. But BROWNLOW notices. The (POLICEMAN: (Realising he has gone too far) Keeping their master out of harm astonished OLIVER starts with horror). Well, on this occasion I shall turn a blind eye to Clever dogs die before their master OLIVER: Oh Mother! That's their game, these crimes, there being just as much wrong on Dead dogs corpse lying in the gutter thieves! Tricked! Tricked! Oh mother! one side as on another. Now, go about your Dead dogs never speak. BROWNLOW: By Gad, I've been robbed! Give business. Good day, My Lord. (He exits, (FAGIN settles down to sleep. Night passes. As that here!! turning away and cringing, his fingers crossed.) dawn light appears FAGIN wakes with a start. OLIVER: Oh no! (OLIVER turns to run and at BROWNLOW: Come back here! I have never FAGIN searches out his hidden box of stolen that moment is spotted by BROWNLOW). heard of anything like it! (to Oliver) Are you all goods) DODGER: (Pointing to OLIVER.) There's the right? FAGIN: Safe! Safe! We're safe! You clever young thief! OLIVER: Not really… my ribs… dog, Little Joe, keeping the dirty hands of the BATES: Catch him, stop thief! BROWNLOW: What a noble face! Come, boy, law of your Fagin's things. Clever dog to. die' OLIVER: I didn’t do it. It's a trick! we will find you a home. My servant Mrs so quiet. Safe. (Sees that OLIVER is awake and DODGER: There's the thief. Grimwig will look after you at my home in watching him.) What7s that! (Snatches up his BATES & DODGE: Stop thief! (OLIVER turns Pentonville… (After POLICEMAN:) And a toasting fork and leaps on OLIVER, holding the and runs) curse upon the law! Blind! Stupid! Corrupt! fork to his throat:) Why do you watch me? ALL CAST but OLIVER: STOP THIEF! And vicious! The law is a ass! A ass! A blind Speak out! Quick! For your life! BROWNLOW: (pursuing the pursuers who and brutal ass! OLIVER: I wasn't able to sleep any longer, sir. now include a POLICEMAN:) Stop! Stop! FAGIN: Listen to the truth from the mouth of I didn't mean to disturb you. That's not him! That's the wrong boy! (They the respectable gentile! FAGIN: (Softening) 0 you didn't disturb me, chase round the auditorium until the policeman BROWNLOW: The Law is a blind and brutal my dear! Tush, tush, my dear, you won't disturb grabs OLIVER and beats him unconscious with ass! old Fagin! I only tried to frighten you, my dear. truncheon. (Back at Fagin’s den, Bates and Dodger enter.) There's so much stealing these days, Oliver, DODGER & BATES break off the chase and FAGIN: Wot's this? Only two of you? Where's why an honest man is afraid for his property. disappear through a side door). Oliver you young dogs. Where's the boy? Speak Did you see any of my pretty things, my dear? POLICEMAN: Got you! or I'll skewer you? (Grabs Bates and hold fork OLIVER: Yes, sir. BROWNLOW: I've been robbed, Officer. to his throat). FAGIN: They belong to me, Oliver. All I have POLICEMAN: And I have arrested the young DODGER: The police have got him. (Sullen). to live on when I get old, Oliver. The folks call thief. FAGIN: Police! me a miser, my dear, only a miser. Because I BROWNLOW: Dear, dear, that is not the Dodger: Let go of me! (FAGIN goes to stab hide my pretty things. But it doesn't do well for correct boy. Bates, Dodger grabs Fagin's arm. Bates twists a 3ew to display his gold, my dear. It's not safe, POLICE: Now Now, Sir, I think we have the out his big coat, leaving it in Fagin's grip. believe me. criminal, don't 'you? Dodger knocks the fork out of Fagin's hand and OLIVER: It must cost a good deal of money to BROWNLOW But it was the other two boys. Bates catches it. Bates tries to stab Fagin who look after so many boys. POLICE: And where are these two other boys? defends himself with his coat round his arm. FAGIN: Eh? 0 , yes! I'm a father to them! And BROWNLOW Half a mile away by now. Throwing off Dodger Fagin grabs the gin to you too, dear boy! Dodger! Bates! It's the POLICE: In that case I never saw them! Come bottle/tankard. Bates escapes through the start of another working day! )Groans from along young devil. coffin/door pursued by Fagin's curses and Fagin DODGER and BATES as they get up.) Now, BROWNLOW This boy is not a thief! flings the tankard/bottle after him but it is Oliver, Dodger and Charlie are going to teach POLICE: Oh come along, Sir, they are all as caught by BILL SIKES as he enters). you how to make pocket handkerchiefs! bad as each other. Now how would it look if I'd BILL: What the blazes is in the wind now! It's OLIVER: Thank you, sir! have knocked an innocent boy to the ground? as well the beer/gin hit me and not the bottle or (To OLIVER:) What's your name, boy? (Pokes I'd have settled someone with me fist! What the Oliver Twist www.english- theatre.cz page 5 / 8 Devil's going on here, Fagin. Ill treating the FAGIN: One of my boys, Nancy, he's been OLIVER: There’s a mistake – help, help!! boys again? It's a wonder they don't murder dragged away. Bill here means to rescue him. Woman: (Appearing at window.) What’s going you! I would if I was them, I'd slit your throat He’s such a wonderful charitable man! on here!! from ear to ear while you slept at night. Fwit! BILL: It's to save 'is filthy neck, and mine too. NANCY: O, ah, Oh Ma’am – why it’s my little (Makes knife gesture). Come on Dodger. We better go now! brother here - he ran away a month ago and FAGIN: Hush, Hush Mister Sikes. NANCY: Bill, listen to me, that old devil is went and joined a set of thieves and bad BILL: None of your Mister this and Mister that. going to be the death of you!(TO Fagin:) How characters! Give me a gin. And mind you don't poison it. can he work tonight? Don’t let him go! Can't FLOWER SELLER O, shame on him!! FAGIN: Bill, Bill you seem out of humour? you see he's too drunk? OLIVER: That’s not true! Madam! I am an BILL: Not as out of humour as Little Joe who Bill: I’m not deaf!! This drink fires me!! orphan. My mother’s name was Agnes. I live you sent to his death… Give me that gin! What’s it to you, anyway? Come on, Dodger! with a rich man in Pentonville! (Bill Sits down on the coffin and puts feet up as (DODGER throws him stick, he misses it and NANCY: Hear how he lies! I don't know how FAGIN examines the loot and DODGER serves collapses drunk). he thinks them up! gin).What are going to give me for this? NANCY: Bill! Bill! Get up, get up, you OLIVER: Dodger! (Empties swag bag on the coffin lid.) drunkard! Fagin, for god’s sake, look at the NANCY: See, he knows us. We are his family. FAGIN: I’m going to give you some bad news state of him!! He can’t go anywhere like that! WOMAN: How sweet! first, Bill. I am afraid the police have taken my FAGIN: Well, the Dodger will go with him… NANCY: Say hello to your brother, Dodger. new boy, Oliver Twist. DODGER: I’m not going out with him OLIVER: I haven’t got a brother! BILL: What's that to me? tonight… WOMAN: Oooo, you liar!! Whack him one for FAGIN: I'm afraid that he might say something FAGIN: You will! me! that gets us into trouble. DODGER: I won’t!! Chorus: Whack him one! Whack him one! BILL: (Laughs) Very likely. You're finished NANCY: Stop it, Fagin! He doesn’t have to go. Thief! Liar! Don't you love your mother! Fagin. (Makes hanging gesture). I’ll go. (OLIVER breaks away and runs into BILL FAGIN: I'm afraid, you see, that if the game FAGIN: You? SIKES who grabs OLIVER). was up with us and the police, it might be up NANCY: Yes, me. I’ll get your precious Oliver BILL: Bullseye! Come and give your Uncle with you and the police. If you get my meaning, Twist for you – after all , Dodger, he’s my little Bill a big hug! (Crushes OLIVER). my dear? brother, ain’t he! OLIVER: You're crushing my ribs! BILL: (Leaps up and grabs FAGIN) Why you – Dodger: Who? BILL: It’s because I'm so pleased to see you, don’t you threaten me!! NANCY: Oliver Twist, my little brother who Oliver Twist! I can't control my feelings! (BILL ATTACKS FAGIN.) ran away from home: “Oliver, Oliver, come (OLIVER passes out and is thrown across DODGER: When you two great gentlemen back to the bosom of your family…” BILL's shoulder like a sack). have finished, you might ask me if Oliver is FAGIN: (To audience.) Bosom? Family? NANCY: (LOUD) His mother will be so still with the Police. Family is the word! When Lord Brownlow buys pleased to see him! BILL: Speak up. back his family he will destroy mine! My BILL: Eh? O, yeh, you are a sharp one, Nancy. FAGIN: What? family of poor street children! Let’s go take a NANCY: Soft for you, Bill. Anythin' for you, DODGER: I saw the whole thing. The look at Lord Brownlow’s sweet family!! Bill. (She leans towards him. Bill kisses her Policeman let him off, a fine gentleman took (Brownlow and Oliver enter. OLIVER taking in passionately. DODGER looks away all coy him home to Pentonville if you please. So, the big house.) goes "Strewth.."). there's the news all about it!. OLIVER: Oooo! BILL: Little girls shouldn't kiss their uncle like FAGIN:Oh you re a clever boy, Dodger, the BROWNLOW: Well, then, Oliver Twist, how that. Come on, Oliver Twist. Let's go to the best, the best. A model to the young. are you feeling, are you fully recovered? Jew. (They move off. A bell strikes - SIKES BILL: (Drinking) Then we have to go to OLIVER: O, yes thank you, Lord Brownlow. freezes). Pentonville and get back the boy. I’m fit as a fiddle., but, please, sir, can I tell you DODGER: What's with you, Bill? FAGIN: No, Bill, you have to go to Pentonville my story now… SIKES: Shut up! It’s eight o'clock. That's when and get back the boy. BROWNLOW: O, there’ll be plenty of time for they move the dead men to the death cells. BILL: I wish you were a dog, Fagin. you to tell me and Mrs Grimwig how you fell Look up there, that’s Newgate Prison. That's FAGIN: And why do you wish me a dog, Bill? among thieves, but right now, Oliver Twist, I where you and me will end, Dodger, swinging BILL: Because the government allows a man to have a task for you – I want you to go to the by the neck until we are dead. You, me and kill a dog when he pleases. bookshop on chancery lane and take back this little Joe, one big dead family. FAGIN: You are a wit, Bill! valuable book and this money – four pounds CHORUS: (sing) the bell tolls, the bell tolls,the (There is a knock. Fagin and Dodger sweep the and ten shillings. bell tolls, Eight bells toll, the knell tolls stolen goods into the bag and hide it, all pretend OLIVER: O yes, sir. The iron bell, one deep hollow sound to be normal but hide a pistol - Bill - fork Fagin BROWNLOW: Now listen o me, Oliver Twist. Stillness, guilty, death! or knife, Dodger behind their backs so the I trust you. Do you understand? DODGER: You're stark ravin' mad, Bill. audience see. It is only NANCY at the door and OLIVER: Well, of course, Lord Brownlow. SIKES: Dead men's bells! Murderers! (Shakes she enters through the trap door when Four pounds and ten shillings. Chancery Lane fist in direction of Newgate Prison.) DODGER slides the bolt.) bookshop. NANCY: Come on, love. (Bells end.) NANCY: Allo, Dodger! Allo, Fagin! I've come BROWNLOW: That’s the one. ( Fagin's Den - the group enter and push to steal my man, Fagin. You can't have him. OLIVCER: Cheerio. OLIVER forward in his smart clothes). BILL: I thought you was supposed to be BROWNLOW: Cheerio. (OLIVER GOES>) FAGIN: (Bowing low) My, my!! Delighted to whoring tonight? What an angel! He’s no thief. If God is in his see you looking so well, my dear. (All laugh) NANCY: I'm sick of those greasy paws on me. heaven Oliver Twist will return, you see… Mrs Why didn't you write and say you were I'm taking the night orff to be with my Bill. Grimwig, (GOING) would you fancy cutting coming? We'd have cooked more sausages. FAGIN: I'm afraid, my dear, your Bill's busy my toenails, they are terribly long… (SIKES pushes him towards the fire - he recoils tonight. He has an appointment in Pentonville. (OLIVER enters whistling. into the arms of FAGIN and DODGER who DODGER: Bill and I are droppin' in on a Lord NANCY and DODGER tail him.) strip him of coat, books and five pound note). Brownlow. If you please. DODGER: That’s him! That’s Oliver Twist! SIKES: (Seeing money) What's that, Fagin? NANCY: Oh not a burglary tonight, Bill. It's NANCY: All right, let’s get him! FAGIN: Mine, my dear, mine. You shall have not safe - there's too much "pale moonlight". OLIVER: Excuse me, lady, I’m supposed to be the books.(Hands them to BILL) BILL: It's not a burglary, Nancy. It's a in Chancery lane… BILL: The money's mine, mine and Nancy's kidnapping. One Oliver Twist. NANCY: Olivber, Oliver, my dear little brother that is. (Grabbing him) … come home, dear, come FAGIN: This is hardly, fair, Bill, hardly fair. home, to the bosom of your family… Oliver Twist www.english- theatre.cz page 6 / 8 BILL: Give it here you avaricious old skeleton! love. Isn't that punishment enough for you sods dress as she sings her song. They join in the (Takes note) That's for our share of the trouble. without the stick? chorus. You keep the books if you're so fond of FAGIN: (To all) Come, come we must have NANCY: My mother said reading. civil words. always look under the bed NANCY: Let me look after the money, Bill. Nancy: Civil words! Before you blow the candle out Like a wife, eh? Fagin: Civil words. In case there is a man about! BILL: What yer talkin' about? Wife? Talkin' NANCY: Why you deserve them from me! I always do, you can make a bet talkin', talkin’, talkin’ - I hates talkin'. Give me When I was half his age I thieved and stole for But its never been my luck to find a man there the money. Who ever heard of a tart handlin' you. And worse (offers her own breasts in yet! her own money? disgust). All: Tra la la, tra la la! It's never her luck to find DODGER: They are very pretty. ('Reading' a FAGIN: Well, well, if you have that's your a man there yet! book upside down). Bootiful writing ain't it, living. NANCY: (Serious & drunk) What a life, boys, Oliver. Which way up does it go? (Laughs). NANCY: Some living!! Waiting for the what a life! What a disappointment! OLIVER: That belongs to the old gentleman hangman’s rope!! Some living! I've had it with (Sings) The girl next door had burglars in who took me into his house. Oh please send your kind of living! Let's get it over with – I’m Beneath her bed one tarried, them back1 send him back his books and taking this child to the police! And neither you She caught him and reformed him money, keep me here all my life (ALL: OOh!") nor him is stopping me! (She runs to coffin In two weeks they were married! but send them back. Or he will think I stole door). But oh it did up set me girls them. He will think I am a thief!( On knees to BILL: What's going on? Lord knows how I did fret Fagin) (BILL gets up, swings Nancy round as if to hit Though I poked beneath my bed FAGIN: (As if moved) O, poor Oliver! You're her, she cowers, he kisses her on the mouth - There was no man there yet- tra la Ia tra la la! right, Oliver. (Shakes head then exclaims with she pulls away and then sobs and hugs him as a ALL: Though she poked beneath her bed there glee) You are right! They will think you are a protector). was no man there yet! thief! Ha ha! It couldn't have worked out better NANCY: Bill, Bi-ill. (DODGER lies down as if to sleep. Puts hat if we'd planned it! You’re one of us now! FAGIN: I- I didn't mean no harm, my dears. over his face.) (At which Oliver makes a dive to escape BILL: She's alright now. But she's strong when BILL: That’s enough now, nancy – come home through BILL's legs). her temper is up. You're too sharp with her, to bed. OLIVER: help! Help! police! (DODGER Fagin, you should soften your tongue with gin. NANCY: I’ll follow you – you go on. I won’t chases after OLIVER and BILL takes up his FAGIN: It's the worst of having to deal with be lonmg… stick). women, but they' re clever and we need them. BILL: Very well… NANCY:(Grabs stick) Don't beat him, Bill. Not Dodger, show Oliver to bed. (BILL goes.) the stick, Bill, he's too young. DODGER: He had better not wear his best NANCY: Staying the night, Dodge? BILL: Stand off me, or I'll split your skull clothes? DODGER: (From under hat.) Yeh. against the wall! FAGIN: Certainly not. The Dodger shall take NANCY: Goodnight, then. NANCY: I don't care, Bill, I don't care what off that best Sunday suit, my dear, for fear it DODGER: ‘night. you do to me! Kill me, but not the child! might get stolen! (Rubs hands and caresses NANCY looks around her and leaves furtively BILL: I'll do the both of you! (Throws Nancy to Oliver's cheek - DODGER takes him off) out, followed by DODGER as BROWNLOW the floor and takes up stick as FAGIN and OLIVER: Get off me!! takes the stage sighing over the portrait of DODGER return with OLIVER who they have DODGER: Temper, temper!! Eh! Agnes. caught with ease,playing with him as if in a BILL: (Leaves with Nancy) Good night Jew. BROWNLOW: O, Agnes. I feel like I have lost game - cat and mouse). (Nancy makes sign of the cross against Fagin another child. Oliver Twist won’t return now. FAGIN: What's the matter here? who smiles and opens the coffin door for them). He stole my book and he stole my money. I BILL: The girl's gone mad! FAGIN: Good night, my dears. thought I recognised some honesty in his face, NANCY: (Shaking with rage). No she hasn't (Door shuts, FAGIN draws his own fingers in his voice. How could I be so wrong. Fagin, don't you believe it! down the door. DODGER reappears). (Knocking at the door – it’s Nancy.) FAGIN: (Shrugging to BILL and turning to DODGER: (Lights pipe) What a lark, eh! BROWNLOW: Mrs Grimwig, would you OLIVER held captive by DODGER) So you FAGIN: Dodger, I don't like the look of that answer the door? wanted to get away, my dear, did you? Called Nancy. How would you like to earn yourself a NANCY: Let me in! I have information for for the police, did you? Well, we'll soon cure bright shining, golden guinea? Lord Brownlow!! you of that. (Taking stick from BILL with DODGER: (Takes money) Just tell me what to (NANCY is being tailed by DODGER.) deference ) do. BROWNLOW: What is the meaning of this! NANCY: (Interceding) I won't stand by and see FAGIN: I want you to follow Nancy and tell me NANCY: Let me in, please! Hear me, I beg you it done, Fagin. You've got the boy, what more where she goes, who she sees and what she or you will never see young Oliver again. do you want. Let him be, or I shall go to the says. A golden guinea if you do it well, and BROWNLOW: Oliver? Oliver Twist? Speak in precious police, I shall put the mark on some of that's more than I ever gave for such a pleasant heaven's name! you even if it leads me to hang! piece of work. (As NANCY enters DODGER sneaks through FAGIN: Bill! DODGER: Like falling off a log. (Exits). the door and eavesdrops.) BILL: Woman! (Grabs he throat, but she kicks FAGIN: That was the worst thing I ever did in NANCY: I am the woman who stole Oliver him in the balls. Dodger laughs. FAGIN tries to my whole life from you when he went to pay for the books. calm things down). (THE THREE CRIPPLES pub. A pub sign BROWNLOW: Mrs Grimwig – call for the FAGIN: Why Nancy! You're more clever than hung on the gallows.) police!! ever tonight! You are acting beautifully. FAGIN: And now, ladies and gentlemen, I call NANCY: No, sir, not the police. Do not judge NANCY: O? Am I? Take care I don't overdo on you all to be witnesses to Nancy’s betrayal me.(Standing) Thank heaven on your knees that the ‘acting’, Fagin! Or it will be the worse for of her own family, of her very own gang. you were never born to cold, hunger, you, Jew. BILL: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the drunkeness and worse as I have been. BILL: Damn your eyes! Do you know what Three Cripple, one of the finest pubs in London BROWNLOW Yes, yes but what of Oliver, kind of dirt you are? and tonight, you are in for a treat!! Because where is he? NANCY: God help me, I know how low I am. tonight you are going to hear one of the finest NANCY: I will try and bring Oliver to you, And I wish I had been struck dead in the street singers in England – put yer hands together for tomorrow night. before I had tricked this child with my talk of Cockney Nancy!! BROWNLOW What do you want? 'sister'. Look at him - from tonight he is a thief, (NANCY enters. The rest with beer mugs stand NANCY: I don’t want anything. I don’t want a liar, a devil - forever in terror of the in front of the stage using the coffin as a raised anything – except a promise: you must promise hangman's rope around his neck, no life, no stage and an opportunity to look up Nancy's me solemnly that any information you gain Oliver Twist www.english- theatre.cz page 7 / 8 from the boy will not be used against any of us BILL: Hell's teeth! (Lets out inhuman roar). (Rushes off as DODGER, OLIVER and FAGIN that have held him? Devils they are, but I will FAGIN: A word, Bill, only a word. (Catches take the stage. "Oliver alone" theme sung. not betray them to the police. Promise me now hold of him). You won't be too violent, will There is a frantic knocking at the door). or I cannot save Oliver. you, Bill? I mean not too violent for safety? BILL: Let me in, damn you! Let me in, damn BROWNLOW I promise you most solemnly. (Bill moans and pushes FAGIN aside and your eyes. (FAGIN lets in BILL. BILL searches NANCY: Then meet me on London Bridge exits). the den.) Have you nothing to say to me? tomorrow night, at midnight - and come alone. (NANCY enters and lays the coffin down as a They’re after my blood! (Pause) Do you mean DODGER: Blimey! bed, singing snatches from "My Mother Said" to sell me, or let me lie here till the hunt is BROWNLOW I shall be there. At midnight. she does look under the bed. But "No Bill" she over? Wait, do you know anything more about Oliver sighs. This is cross referred to "MURDER" FAGIN: You may stop here, if you think it's Twist? chorically sung as BILL swings across the safe, my dear. NANCY: He was raised in a workhouse. His Scaffold and enters as if through a window). BILL: Is Nancy..buried? (All shake heads). No? mother’s name was Agnes. NANCY: My, Bill, you gave me a fright! Come Why isn't she? Why do you keep such ugly BROWNLOW: Agnes! Agnes? Are you sure? to bed, love. things above the ground? (All silent) Say NANCY: Yes. Let me go! Tomorrow night. BILL: Get up! something can't you? Dodger, Dodger, don't BROWNLOWL Goodnight. NANCY: Let me light a lamp. you know me? NANCY: I must go. I’ve stayed too long. BILL: Leave it be. There's enough light for DODGER: Don't come near me, monster! BROWNLOW: I shall be there. (NANCY what I've got to do? FAGIN: We have all been made into monsters. goes.) This is remarkable. Oliver Twist is my NANCY: Bill, why do you look at me like that? DODGER: All I ever done was steal grandson! The child of my Agnes. But that (BILL who has been watching her) handkerchiefs! Listen to them: BLOOD! They'll means those kidnappers know the shame of my BILL: You know, you she-devil! You were have our blood, damn you (To Bill:) Get back, family!! Mrs Grimwig! Mrs Grimwig, tell the watched tonight. Every word you said was Bill! I ain't afraid of you. Witness me Oliver, I houseboy to follow her. And send for the heard. Traitor! ain't frightened of him. (Runs to top of scaffold police. We will hang the lot of them. Thieves, NANCY: No! I never betrayed you, Bill. (He and shins up it). Murder! Murder! Help! Sikes whores and kidnappers. Death to then all! And I hits her). I have been true to you! Even to is here. Bill Sikes is here! Help! Murder! shall have my sweet Oliver again - the face, the Fagin, Dodger, the boys. I never said a word FAGIN: (Sadly) Now, Oliver Twist, it is time features, the smile I should have known, he is against all of us. We are all the scum, the mud, for us to die so you can live happily ever after. the child of my Agnes! I shall hold him in my the dregs we stick together. What else have we (Unties Oliver raises handkerchief). BLOOD! arms! Death to those that stand in my way! Mrs got? charity? The Police? I hate em Bill as BLOOD! Grimwig! Mrs Grimwig! much as I loves you, I- DODGER: Here, in here, Police! (Nancy runs furtively across the stage. To the BILL: Talkin'! I hates talkin’! Traitor!(He hits BILL: I'm not finished yet, and neither is that same melody/form as NATURE BLED ON her again1 knocking her behind the curtain, damn Oliver who brought us to this. Come here HEAT!! AND MOOR - a menacing song is raining blows and blood seeps across the cloth. vermin. ( DODGER jumps off the scaffold and sung. BILL SIKES staggers on stage and The chorus rises to a climax then silence, he escapes.) (TO Oliver) Come here you, take this collapses. FAGIN and DODGER meet.) pulls back the curtain and light floods in - he rope and onto the roof! Fagin: Well? starts. The dog howls and cries, hanging his OLIVER: Fagin, help me-.... DODGER: (Nods) Nancy! head he creeps out. DODGER enters and sees BILL: Do your worst I'll cheat you yet! (FAGIN and DODGER are searching for BILL. the body, retches and cries under breath: Murderers! (Shakes fist at public) Nancy vanishes). "Nancy! Nancy! Murder!" the sung chant BLOOD! (Climbs up gallows with the Bleeding skies and lashing rain builds, then Dodger wraps the bloody body in a unwilling help of OLIVER. Smog and cloud hide London's shame sheet and drags it away as FAGIN speaks): BILL: Curse you all, the whole world! Damn Blackened sky and rolling thunder FAGIN: Of all the crimes that have been life! Damn you, Dodger! Damn you all! London's laughter see him stagger committed under the cover of darkness within OLIVER: (On gallows still) Help! Help! Wonder where he can find shelter great London since night first hung over the Policeman: (Played by Fagin actor) There he is! Helter skelter through the rain city, was this really the worst? What of the There’s the murderer! There’s Sikes! Only gin will numb his brain – workhouse? What about the children whose (Policeman fires rifle - BILL he is hit, he Ease the nagging..pa-a-a-ain. (BILL falls). lives were crushed in the mines and in the screams staggers back and drops to the floor). DODGER: (Finding him) Here 'e is. In the factories. Was the mob and the law sent out FAGIN: Dead! Bill dead! Nancy dead! Little gutter! (DODGER splashes water in BILL's after those responsible for those crimes? No! o, Joe dead! And now it is time for Faghin to die. face. BILL grabs DODGER and attacks him. no! But it comes to the deeds of a common Death: that is the story of Oliver Twist! And FAGIN and DODGER wrestle BILL to the criminal like Bill Sikes then the likes of Lord I’m not guilty! I’m not ready to go yet! Let me ground.) Brownlow call for the police, the police will go! (Struggling as he is tied and hooded) Let FAGIN: Listen, Bill, Bill, can you hear me? call for the newspapers, the newspapers will be me go, let me go back to the children! Who will BILL: ‘Ere, Fagin? (incoherent) Are you dead sold in pubs and in the gutters and very soon a look after them? Lord Brownlow? If I'm so bad and become a ghost? great mob will gather in the streets of London why am so poor? You have no right to kill me! FAGIN: What do you mean, Bill? baying and screaming for blood, justice, truth What right have you to butcher me? No right! BILL: How is it you're out of your den? and revenge – a mob, a riot , a pogrom even … (Fading as hood put on) No right! No right! FAGIN: Bad news, Bill. We have been and where else would I find a mob than here Please, the murderer is Brownlow!! Please, betrayed to the police. before me? (Indicates audience). I need you to please! (The Hangman connects Fagin to the BILL: Blabbin? (Pulling himself up suddenly) all howl and cry: harness/noose and stands back. Fagin begins to Who? How? Why? BLOOD! The blood of Bill Sikes, Dodger, move.He dances out his innocence with the FAGIN: It was one of our own gang, Bill, our Fagin and all the gang! Let us try it out my rope around his neck a lament is sung.) own family. Dodger saw them, heard them dears. (Improvise if they are not loud enough he CHORUS: (sung) A poor man, a poor man, a going to the Police. One of our own. can accuse them of being liberals and poor man. BILL: Traitor! I'll tear out their heart. Who? Christians.)And now the chase is on! Justice! Not a rustle, not a breath. Stillness, guilty, Who! (Grabbing DODGER). (Raises handkerchief all shout:8L0OD!) death. Death death. Guilty guilty. DODGER: It wasn't quite like that. (BILL is caught in a follow spot in the theatre ( The trapdoor is sprung and FAGIN hangs. His FAGIN: (Silencing him)Sold us to the Police, balcony or on the lighting grid, a Policeman arm jerks up and the red handkerchief waves sold us to Death! chases. BLOOD! Allowing time for a quick for a moment then drops). BILL: Who! change BROWNLOW runs through audience to THE END. DODGER: Leave off! (Pulls away and then the front of the stage, as Police whistles sound): Copyright: Paul Stebbings and Phil Smith spitefully) It was Nancy. (Pause) FAGIN: It was Nancy. Oliver Twist www.english- theatre.cz page 8 / 8