1989 news clippings

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Oliver and Pip bring Dickens’ novels to delight Cairo’s theatre audiences
THIS autumn, readers of Charles Dickens in particular and theatre lovers in general were entertained by adaptations of two of the 19th century British novelist’s greatest books, “Great Expectations” and “Oliver Twist”.
The Traverse Theatre of Scotland presented “Great Expectations”, which was adapted for the theatre by John Clifford, at the National Theatre in Ataba Square, Cairo. In view of the fact that the play was presented from Nov. 9 to 11 only, all of its three performances were booked solid, with a large segment of the audience made up of English-medium school pupils, who are studying Dickens’ novel, as well as students of English literature at the various universities in Cairo.
“Great Expectations” was divided into two acts, the first presents the life of Philip Pirrip, better known simply as Pip, before he goes to London, while Act 2 portrays the life of Pip in London after an unknown benefactor dec»dec to change Pip from a commoner to a gentleman.
In the first act, the director, Ian Brown, took the audience from scene to scene so swiftly that sometimes it was quite difficult to catch up. The very simple set that was used facilitated this speedy shift from, for example, the Gargery home to the graveyard and on to Miss Havisham’s house then back to the Gargerys’.
However, it must be noted yOO that the quick change of scenes, and that took place right in front of the eyes of the audience, was carried out in an ingenius manner.
To illustrate, the director used two people in the cast to circle whips high above the stage floor to create the
BY HISHAM KANDIL
sound of a blowing wind that was necessary for the scene in which Pip and Magwitch try to escape in a boat. In another scene, two actors, who substitute for wooden poles, hold the two ends of a clothes line on which Biddy hangs clothes to dry.
According to Clifford, Dickens writes wonderful dialogue and creates strong dramatic scenes that can only be told in a novel and quite impossible to reproduce on stage. But despite this remark, Clifford managed to preserve some of the original dialogue lines, and this added classical charm to the work.
When Pip goes to see Estella in the second act to try and persuade her to show some affection for him in return for his love for her, Brown and Clifford decide to have the original Dickens wording that is said by Estella to Pip : “Moths and all sorts of ugly creatures hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it ?”
The element of dance, accompanied by the live music performed by cellist-actress Jane MacFarlane, added glamour to the play, although some of the dance movements appeared to be somewhat awkward.
“Oliver!”
The other play, Lionel Bart’s musical “Oliver!” was performed by the Theatre Company of the American University in Cairo at AUC’s Wallace Theatre later in the month. Based on Dickens’ “Oliver Twist”, the cast included children, who were chosen from the British International School in S^malek, to represent and play the roles of the children of the workhouse and Fagin’s gang of little pick-pockets.
CHARLES DICKENS
The musical numbers were skilfully performed by a small orchestra that included a bass player, flutist, oboist, pianist, trombonist, violinist, and the play’s musical director, Larry Catlin, who operated the synthesizer and percussion instruments.
The orchestra was joined by the singers, who were members of the cast, in the various entertaining numbers that delighted the full-capacity audiences of Wallace Theatre, especially those who knew the original songs
from Lionel Bart’s musical or from the superb 1968 film version that was directed by Sir Carol Reed.
The only complaint concerning the musical numbers perhaps was that several voices clearly showed that they were either untrained or received very little voice training. In addition, some of the dialogue was hardly audible. Those who were unfortunate enough to sit in the back seats of the theatre had trouble hearing some of the nonmusical parts of the play. For example, Caroline Khalil, who played old Sally, spoke to the widow Comey in such a low voice that she could not be heard in the back.
The set, that was designed by Hamed Ali who has woi^ ked with the play director, Walter Eysselinck, in a number of AUC theatre productions, was rather modest but quite apt.
The fruitful cooperation between AUC’s theatre company and the British International School in producing “Oliver!” may encourage Eysselinck to seek the cooperation and talent of other theatre troupes in Cairo for future drama productions of AUC’s Department of Theatre, Music, Art, and Film.
THE Widow Corney (played by Maissa El Re foie) and Mr. Bumble (Ihab Shawi) engage in a heated discussion in one of the scenes of “Oliver!". (Photo courtesy of AUC)