Theatre and Dance

When Fagin and the Artful Dodger danced off into the sunset to continue their life of crime at the end of the iconic musical, you may have thought that you had seen the last of Dodger and his mate, the title character Oliver.  

But you’d be wrong, and if you want to see an interpretation of what happened next, you can join audiences at the Sandpit Theatre in St Albans where ACT, Sandringham School’s Arts Community Theatre Group, will show you in ‘Dodger’, an exciting, fast-paced musical sequel to Oliver!

More than 50 young cast members aged 9 – 13 from schools across the county have been working with Sandringham staff and students to create this production, which was written specifically for a young cast, and will be shown as part of this year’s St Albans Festival.

Just as with Oliver, the story is set in London but it’s now 1845, about six years since we last saw the characters. Fagin and Bill Sykes have since died and Dodger is languishing in Newgate Prison, but his love Bet goes to find Oliver and his grandfather and asks for help in getting Dodger out of gaol.

Director Claire Waghorn, who is also Assistant Head of Drama at the school, told us what happens next:

“There’s quite a complicated plot!” she said.

Young cast members

“Dodger is about to inherit a lot of money but the only people who know about it are his lawyers. But then they join up with one of the prison guards.

“Then there are also another four villains involved, including Mrs Sowerberry, the undertaker’s wife [from Oliver Twist] and Mrs Bumble who are both now widows, plus two other people who worked at the undertakers who want revenge on Oliver, so there are eight villains after him in all!

“So some [characters] are recognisable [from the original musical] and some are new so it’s not just a rehash of Oliver” she continued.

“Many new characters have been introduced and we’ve got some fantastic young actors playing those parts.”

Although it is not particularly well-known, Dodger is not a new musical. It was first written in 1990 for a youth theatre group and been revived and worked on ever since as various different groups took it on.

It came to ACT’s attention through the Project Theatre Manager at Sandringham, who was actually a prisoner in the first version, had seen it worked on and improved over the years, and thought it was a fantastic piece.

For Claire, who directed ‘We Will Rock You’ earlier in the year, it was a chance to start with a virtually blank canvas, unlike many of the other shows she has done.

“For me it was a chance to work on a musical that I don’t know” she explained.

“There are some great musicals around but to find one that people don’t know is a real challenge.

“We Will Rock You was difficult because the stage show is so well known now, but this is totally at the other end of the spectrum which has been great.”

Youngsters from seven primary schools and two secondary schools from across the county are involved in the production, and as Claire explained, they never have a shortage of volunteers for their community productions.

“The team here go out to schools a lot and do a lot of outreach work so they are used to us and know us.

“So when we are doing things like this we always have a lot of kids audition for us. We have a cast of 55 in this, which is fantastic, really good.

“We have a cast of tremendously talented young actors who have been a joy to work with, especially the tight-knit team of terrifying villains! I pity Dodger and his gang!”

All the cast are 13 and under, except for two 14-year-olds, who are almost seen as the elder statesmen of the group!

“Yes” laughed Claire, “they are the more mature members who are helping to inspire the younger pupils. It’s hilarious because there are all these nine-year-olds running around and the 14-year-olds are all grown up, when it’s usually 17-year-olds being grown up and the 14-year-olds running around!”

Claire has also enlisted the help of three of her older students, which, she said, has been a very positive experience.

“It has been fantastic to harness the talents of assistant directors and choreographers from year 12 (Tim Withers, Cara Rodford and Georgina Mandefield) who have delighted in sharing their knowledge, skills and enthusiasm with the young cast. That has been absolutely amazing.

“The younger ones can see older students involved and see how it should be done in a professional way and the older students get to demonstrate leadership” she added.

As a designated school for the arts, Sandringham delights in being able to bring other pupils together for a community production like this. And it’s also great for these youngsters to be able to use the wonderful facilities that Sandringham have, particularly their own performance space, the Sandpit Theatre.

“We’re so lucky” revealed Claire, “we have our own theatre here which makes it so much more exciting because we don’t have to hire in equipment. We have the facilities here already to make a real go of it. And this is a real community piece, which is great.”

You can see Dodger at the Sandpit Theatre, Sandringham School, The Ridgeway, St Albans.

2nd-4th July at 7.30pm
Sat Mat: 2.30pm

Box Office: 01727 370067