Sunday 18 August 2013

Oliver Twist

Prepare yourself for a series of posts related to the story of Oliver Twist! I will start off with the original novel of course and then continue the Oliver theme with the 1968 movie musical (which was supposed to be July's MoMoMu but things got in the way). Let's begin!

WARNING – this blog post contains details about the plot because I found it extremely difficult to discuss noteworthy things without including those details.

Oliver Twist, subtitled The Parish Boy's Progress, was Charles Dickens' second novel. The author was aged just 26 when Oliver Twist was published in 1838. It was quite a remarkable book even before it reached its greatest fame: it was the first English novel ever to feature a child protagonist and drew wide attention to the appalling conditions of the poor in the society. The most desperate people led a starving, hopeless life in parish workhouses, which is where Oliver Twist is born and almost immediately orphaned. After somehow surviving several years in the "care" of the parish and Mr Bumble the mad beadle, he makes his way to London. There, he falls in with the "Artful Dodger" and friends, too naive and ignorant of the world to realize that the boys are actually pickpockets who deliver their stolen goods to Fagin, who sells them on. Being a penniless, lonely child in London, Oliver's destiny continues to be thrown about – for better and for worse – by everyone else but himself. However, through all his difficulties and encounters with the most terrible sort of people, he manages to cling on to some innate sense of morality that he has in him, which pays off in the end.



As I mentioned before, Oliver Twist was only Dickens' second novel, and although the young Dickens holds up well against many more mature writers, I think that it shows somewhat in the narrative structure that he's not at the height of his genius yet. After Oliver comes to London, the plot gets curiously repetitive: Oliver joins Fagin's pickpockets; he goes out to "work" with the other boys; he gets into trouble but in the end he is rescued by Mr Brownlow, the same man whose possessions he was accused of stealing; then he spends the happiest time of his life in Mr Brownlow's house. This goes on for some time, and then the wheel turns round again: Bill Sikes and Nancy, Fagin's used-to-be "pupils", capture Oliver and bring him back to Fagin; then he's ordered on a burglary mission with Bill Sikes; he gets shot but the residents of the house take pity on him and take him to live with them, and then he's happy again. And although the story's events center mainly around Oliver, the narrator also occasionally leaves Oliver to show what the other characters are up to. While these subplots all do have a vital point to the story, the length of the Oliver-less gaps is on the verge of building up impatience ("Hey, it's been five chapters now, I want to know what's happened to Oliver since we last saw him! You just left him in the night with a gunshot wound!") rather than suspense. So these are slight structural problems in my view – I haven't really heard anybody else's opinions on Oliver Twist so I don't know if it is entirely my personal opinion.

However, as it is Dickens we're talking about, there are some incredible pieces of masterwork in this book. While Oliver himself isn't the most interesting character in the world because he really doesn't do much to steer his own life, there are many, many characters of the  Dickensian top quality. Mr Bumble the workhouse tyrant gets the award of "most chuckle-worthy Dickens name" in this book, and in all his sadistic horror he manages to become the most pathetic character of all when his new wife places him safely under her thumb. The darkest character is not Mr Bumble, but rather Bill Sikes the heartless burglar, who is written with such powerful black magic from Dickens' pen that he should come with a warning "may cause nightmares to the most sensitive people". There's the Artful Dodger, Fagin's top-of-the-class pickpocket who makes a serious match against Les Misérables' Gavroche in attitude. He takes the talent of "dodging" and sniggering at the society's rules to such a level that I wasn't even able to feel sad for him when he was transported to Australia to serve prison time – I'm entirely convinced that he either ended up running the whole prison colony or snuck into a ship back to England the moment he touched the Australian ground.

Robert Madge played the Artful Dodger, and Gavroche too!
And then there's Nancy, Bill Sikes' girlfriend who remains loyal to him despite the horrible way he treats her. For me, Nancy was definitely the character that I felt the most for. I couldn't help hoping desperately that she'd leave Bill even though I knew it would never happen, and when Oliver makes her long-forgotten conscience kick in, her character development is absolutely heart-breaking. Dickens seems to have had a very clear purpose in writing Nancy's character: through her, he argues that everyone has the chance for redemption, even a long-time prostitute and pickpocket. This was a fairly controversial point to make in the Victorian society, where the general consensus was that firstly, God decided which social class you belonged to and there was little or no chance you could do anything to change it, and secondly, that people in the lower classes were bound to become criminals and they had no knowledge of moral values. Dickens questions this view by giving us not only Nancy, but another young female character of humble birth: Rose Maylie, who was born an illegitimate child in a miserable home, but who grew up to be the sweetest young lady thanks to the care of Mrs Maylie who adopted her.

In addition to writing characters, Dickens is fantastic at creating an atmosphere. Even the possible structural flaws that I mentioned barely matter at all when you get to experience such emotionally powerful pieces of writing. I'll give just a couple of examples of the passages that gripped me the most: Whenever you're at the parish workhouse, you can feel the inmates' hopelessness and misery weighing you down; when Oliver, an 8-year-old child for goodness' sake, wonders if it would be better to die than to live in the cruel world, it really freezes your heart; the conversation between Rose Maylie and Nancy creates a stark contrast between the two young women, Rose being a well-cared-for and adored child with a happy future waiting for her, and Nancy having given up all hope of ever leading a decent life; and near the end of the book, when Fagin waits for his hanging in his cell, you can almost hear the clock ticking away his last hours.

Bill Sikes
I simply can't understand how Oliver Twist is sometimes described as "the famous children's tale". Not that this happens very often, but I really wonder why it happens at all. Having a child protagonist doesn't automatically make a book intended for children! Yes, Oliver is a child character you can easily sympathize for and yes, he does get his happily ever after in the end, but while Dickens is telling his story he really doesn't soften the image of East End London, or the lives of the destitute people living there. Oliver Twist features starving children, implications of prostitution, a girl beaten to death, lots of other gruesome deaths, and shameful secrets about illegitimate children. Does that sound like something a child would like to read? Any attempt of trying to make the story more "kid-friendly" would immediately lessen the point that Dickens was obviously trying to get across when writing this story. The effects can be clearly seen in the 1968 film musical version which I will also be reviewing soon.

Oliver Twist is a dark story, not just for its main character but for many others too, and not all readers will like it for that reason. However, there is a glimmer of hope in it too, and Dickens has the ability to make his readers really think about life and possibly question the way some things are handled in our society – yes, in our modern-day society, not just Victorian England. Which means Charles Dickens was a truly powerful writer already at the age of 26.










Saturday 17 August 2013

Random funny videos from the world of musicals

I was feeling down tonight so I decided to make a post to up my mood. This is basically a bunch of videos that always make me happy no matter how many times I've watched them! All of them happen to be related to musical theatre.

Christina Bianco's Diva Impressions
This one is a fairly new discovery I made, all thanks to Being Alive, a great Finnish musical blog! Christina Bianco is really funny and talented. It's such a great accomplishment to be able to sing well in your own voice, let alone trying to imitate about a dozen other singers... My favourite impressions here are Julie Andrews, Céline Dion, Britney Spears, Judy Garland and Kristin Chenoweth!

John vs Killian - Phantom Twister
John Owen-Jones and Killian Donnelly are both extremely talented West End performers whom I love to listen to, but on these John vs Killian videos, instead of singing they do funny challenges – because the Phantom of the Opera fandom is always pitting the Phantom and Raoul against each other.

Samantha Barks wins role of Éponine
Okay, anyone who's stalked on Les Mis film related videos will have seen it, but I have to mention it because it always puts me in a good mood. About halfway through the video Cameron Macintosh walks on stage with the cast of Oliver! and surprises Samantha :)

Colm Wilkinson is Back
Another Les Mis film featurette which I love for two reasons: 1. It has Colm Wilkinson in it and he's one of the most adorable people ever, 2. We get to hear his divine voice. Seriously, how many people can still sing so beautifully at the age of 68?


Neil Patrick Harris and Hugh Jackman at 2011 Tony Awards
Both of these guys are so handsome and talented and seem like such nice people I'd love to meet them... And here they are on the same video!


Les Mis Bloopers
One more video I added after I'd already published this post – I can't believe I forgot this one, it is amazingly funny! Vikidál Gyula, the Hungarian Valjean starting at 3:32, is absolutely priceless!


Have a great day everyone!

Sunday 11 August 2013

Potter things that I've done

I read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for the first time when I was nine years old and I'm immensely proud of belonging to the "Potter generation". During these many years of loving the Potter series, I've of course had time to do many bizarre things that only other Potterheads can understand. It's confession time for Mizzie-Me!


  • It's probably not even worth mentioning that I waited for my letter from Hogwarts after I turned 11 – didn't we all?
  • I envied my sister like crazy when her high school arranged a trip to London. I begged her to go see the King's Cross station on my behalf – come to think of it, I don't remember if she did!
  • I once had the most epic birthday party with a Philosopher's Stone theme. We made a sort of obstacle course around the house according to the rooms that Harry, Ron and Hermione went through to save the Philosopher's Stone. I'm not exactly sure what year this party was, but I have a feeling it might have been my 10th birthday.
  • For some weeks after I'd read Chamber of Secrets, I was honestly scared of going to the bathroom because I half expected a Basilisk to rise up from the toilet seat every time I opened the lid.
  • I wished our house was more like the Burrow.
  • My sister and I tried to beat each other at which one could do a better imitation of Fleur's and Madame Maxime's French accent in Goblet of Fire.
  • I've exhausted my brain a hundred times trying to decide which animal I'd be if I was an Animagus. I still haven't decided.
  • I still wish that I could easily find all my lost things with a simple Accio charm.
  • I planned a letter to J.K. Rowling in great detail, but I never neither wrote nor sent it.
  • Poor dad had to listen to me and my sister nearly shouting our voices hoarse when he picked us up after we'd seen the Goblet of Fire film. We just couldn't stand most of the things about that movie: Harry and Ron's hairdos, the ridiculously long "dragon pulls itself loose and chases Harry around for what feels like half an hour" scene, and Mad-Eye Moody looking like a drunk, to name a few.
  • I feel like punching the air in triumph every time Professor Flitwick does or says something cool because he shows how short people can be awesome.
  • One weekend in July 2007, our family went cruising around the lake on our new boat. All I did during that supposed family time was shut myself into one of the boat's cabins and consume Deathly Hallows like my life depended on it. I'm afraid I was so mean that I sent my sister (who didn't get her own copy and was going to read the book once I was finished) mean text messages like "This is the best book in the whole series!" and "Wow, there's something really interesting about ghosts in here!"




What memorable things have you done in the name of Potterlove?

Saturday 10 August 2013

Palatsi Course, Day 5

The last day of the musical theatre course was upon us, and I'm pretty sure we all felt like we could've easily spent another week at Palatsi. We definitely were wondering about how much we'd come together as a group in just four days' time, already so comfortable around each other, filling the spaces of free time with bursting into song randomly and generally goofing around.

There wasn't much left to do before the final performance at midday. We squeezed in a quick run-through after we warmed up, and then it was time to double-check all the props, retreat backstage and wait for the audience (not a very large one, consisting almost entirely of our families and friends) to come in. People all around were whispering about which level of stage fright they were experiencing. I was honestly nervous about one bit only – my part in I'm Not That Girl. I kept missing the beat in the second half of my verse though sometimes I'd get it right without any difficulty. Today, however, the verse went perfectly fine so all was well!

We got through the entire thing without any colossal mishaps – or without any small ones either, come to think of it. Those of us who were backstage listened with baited breath as the second Galinda reached her "Why do you always have this funny little bottle under your pillow" line and felt so happy for her when she managed to get the word "bottle" out right, instead of "pigeon!" (I should inform foreign readers that the words for "bottle" and "pigeon" in Finnish are "pullo" and "pulu" so it's entirely possible to mix up those two when you're pumped with adrenaline) Third Galinda also conquered the word "project" in her scene, so things were going marvelously well. My monologue moment went smoothly as well, though it would have been nice if I had gotten at least some tiny laughs out of the audience because I tried very hard to write a funny speech. Well, as I commented on my ABBA show review, Finnish spectators are never the most active ones.

Our course wasn't quite over yet when the performance was finished. We were going to get individual feedback from all of our teachers. So we were called in one by one, while the rest of us waited – that is to say, made the most of our last opportunity to go crazy together. Mostly, that meant blowing soap bubbles (indoors and outdoors to amuse the pedestrians on the main street of Tampere) and singing together so loud that the teachers downstairs had to ask us to keep it down a bit. My feedback included quite a clear message that I have something of a gift in writing drama. Nothing could have made me happier than to hear that – I'll pursue my new-found dream of studying playwriting with even more confidence now.

All in all, this summer course has convinced me that the world of theatre and music is definitely something I want to keep learning about. It was wonderful to see what 17 people, most of whom didn't know each other beforehand, could achieve together in five days, and how much you can squeeze out of yourself when you throw reserve and pointless self-consciousness out of the window. As I revealed in my previous installment of this course diary, I haven't done any theater since graduating from high school, and now I've decided that it can't be like that any more. Mizzie-Me is going to find herself a theater hobby this fall...

Palatsi Course, Day 4 + ABBA Dancing Queen Show

Heya, sorry I'm so late with completing this course diary. First my Internet was mysteriously off for a couple of days and then our family was struck by a deep personal tragedy which took all my strength away. However, right now I'm quite happy to have something like this to take my mind off things. So let's get back to the topic!

At the end of the previous day, we had been discussing our costumes for the demo and agreed what sort of stuff everyone should bring with them. Therefore, today began with trying on all the shirts and dresses and wigs and witch hats and tiaras and cat ears etc. And making sure everyone had their own suitcase for the I Wanna Be Like You dance.

Once the costumes and props were in order, we started running through the whole performance from start to finish. I hadn't been in any kind of theatre-related performances for about three years, and I had completely forgotten how incredibly annoying the first couple of run-throughs are. The atmosphere when everyone is all stressed and paranoid about costume changes and shoes and finding their props where they're supposed to be and entering the stage from the correct side... It's not a nice party, I'll tell you that.

However, the run-throughs got smoother and smoother as the day went by, and despite all the usual hassle there was also definitely the positive side of seeing the huge progress we'd made in just four days. The scenes and dance numbers which had seemed so hard to put together on the first day of the course were now looking like actual performances! Everyone had learned their lines by heart, and once again I found I have some sort of super-auditive memory because I can honestly say that I know the whole script by heart now, from just listening from backstage. I even helped a friend rehearse her lines by stepping in as her opposite!

Not surprisingly, our acting teacher raised the issue of voice and articulation on stage. As everyone probably knows, you simply can't speak with a normal voice on stage and you have to be careful not to talk too fast or your speech turns into an incoherent mess. We went through the entire script as a "voice rehearsal" where we simply sat on the stage and spoke our lines, making sure we articulated properly. For some weird reason the whole situation got so funny that people kept cracking up in most inappropriate places, such as when Elphaba tells Galinda that her father hates her. It only got worse when one of the people playing Galinda suddenly couldn't get the word "project" out of her mouth (in the line "Elphie, now that we're friends I've decided to make you my new project.")

All the hard work paid off in the end, as all of our teachers were really pleased with the final run-through. We even had some audience from outside the production team as our acting teacher's sister – if I remember correctly it was her sister – snuck in to watch. I say "snuck in" because we had no idea she was there till the end of the run-through! We even got some feed-back from her, translated from Russian by our acting teacher. She said that even though she didn't understand Finnish, she could still tell what was going on all the time! Isn't that pretty amazing?

More great stuff was coming up today. Tonight, all of us on the course got to see a real, professional Palatsi Theater production, ABBA Dancing Queen Show, for free! Of course we all went, who would say no to a free concert (well technically the ticket was included in the price of the course, but anyway) full of ABBA songs, and with our course's vocal coach performing as one of the ABBA members? So, my review of Palatsi Theater's ABBA Dancing Queen Show starts now!

To all not-Finnish readers of my blog, I should first explain that ABBA is kind of a big thing here in Finland, even if the group has been disbanded since 1982. No matter how jealous we Finns are of the Swedes because we've never had such a megastar music brand as ABBA, almost all of us secretly think Dancing Queen is one of the most awesome jamming tunes ever and we know at least that song, Mamma Mia and/or Waterloo by heart. So audiences have very high expectations for any production that attempts to pay homage to the glory of ABBA. I'm pleased to say that the Palatsi production lived up to and even beyond at least my expectations in every way.

The ABBA four were played by Päivi Lepistö, Marko Lämsä, Kimmo Blom and Capri Selo (as Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lygnstad respectively). All of them were extremely good performers and went so well together that you might have believed they'd been performing together for years, just like ABBA! Their voices also went very nicely together; I just adore really good harmonies, like the ones they had at the beginning of Super Trouper. However, two of the ABBA performers really stood out for me, and those two were Kimmo Blom and Capri Selo (a.k.a. our course vocal coach!)

I really wonder why I had never heard of Kimmo Blom before, because that man's a superstar. Not only does he completely own the stage and make it absolutely clear how much he loves what he's doing, he also has a phenomenal voice which he, thank goodness, really got to show off during his SOS solo.

Capri Selo has an incredible powerhouse voice as well, and her solo performances were the definite highlights of the evening for me. If I had to name just one best moment in the show, I would probably pick Capri Selo singing The Winner Takes It All, because it combined three great things: my favourite ABBA lyrics, Selo's voice and perhaps the most skilled aerial ribbons acrobat I've ever seen.

Speaking of acrobats – in addition to the well-known songs and talented singers, the ABBA Dancing Queen Show provided some exquisite visual candy as well. Firstly, one of the things that made the original ABBA iconic was their disco-ballish costumes, so of course Palatsi's show had to recreate some of them. They were bright, they were sparkly, they were ABBA. Aside from the four singers, the show employed two dancers/circus performers. One was Paula Thesleff, the aforementioned aerial ribbons acrobat who twirled in the air during Dancing Queen and The Winner Takes It All. The other was Jenni Pylkkänen, who wowed the audience by twirling up to four hoops at once during Does Your Mother Know and some other song which I've sadly forgotten – it's been a week since I saw this show... When the two weren't performing their respective acrobatic acts, they were dancing to Mönzi Kurbanali's choreographies, which were also very nice to look at.

All of us from the theatre course had a great time cheering and swaying all together – it seems to me that the more friends you're with when watching a performance, the better the atmosphere! Our group of 17 was by far the loudest lot in the audience – Finnish audiences are very reserved in general and it usually takes something really iconic and well-known like ABBA tunes to cause a standing ovation. But even now that we had all those favourite tunes, I definitely think the audience could've been more lively. Come on Finns, don't you want the performers you're watching to know that you love them? You've got to learn how to "bring the house down" as the saying goes!

If you happen to be anywhere near Tampere, go and see ABBA Dancing Queen Show at Musiikkiteatteri Palatsi. You'll come back from the show with all the ABBA hits happily clumped up in your head.

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PS I really need to say one more thing which has nothing to do with my course diary or ABBA. I made a fantastic new discovery in music, all thanks to Kristallikettu. I had never heard of Abney Park before or listened to that type of music, but now I've found them and I'm obsessed... Listening to the violin is one of my Huge Random Favourite Things along with top hats, chocolate and tea, and lots of Abney Park songs have some wonderful violin in them! Go look it up!



Friday 2 August 2013

Palatsi Course, Day 3

I had to wait till quarter to one at night for the inspiration to write that monologue and once I was finished I stayed awake because I was so excited to see whether or not it was going to work on stage! But well, despite the sleep deprivation, today turned out even better than the day before.

We worked on the big Wicked scene some more today. We're doing the scene where everyone arrives at Shiz University and Madame Morrible discovers that Elphaba is gifted with magic. Today, we added in the bit where Elphaba performs the magic. We've got the Harry Potter theme tune on the background! I had a pretty nice bruise on my left knee that evening because I had to fall down on the floor like seven times...

I got my wish today – we practiced I'm Not That Girl! There's four of us singing it, each one gets their own verse. I have the "blithe smile, lithe limb" part. I kept messing up the rhythm in the second half of the verse all the time. I've only ever taken singing lessons with about 10 other people in the room singing at the same time, so it was really exciting having just three other people plus the teacher, and singing solo! And it's such a pretty song, I love it.

After teatime I finally could have peace of mind with that monologue I wrote because we rehearsed that scene next. What I do is basically this: there's a scene in Galinda and Elphaba's dorm room where Galinda tries to teach Elphaba how to be popular. We modified that scene a bit and added three other roommates there, one of them being me. Each of us tries to help Elphaba in different ways. My monologue is kind of a really girly, overexcited hibbidy-tibiddy where I pull out nice and girly things out of a giant bag. The bit I wrote for myself worked out pretty well, didn't have to modify it at all. The best thing really was when we had done the scene a couple of times and the girls who share the scene with me started to react to all my lines, they were all so funny and the stage got so nice and comfortable! Everyone keeps saying this and it's not a very surprising fact, but the communication between actors in a scene, even if they're not talking themselves all the time, is just vital for a scene to work out. I don't think I've ever realized this fact quite as profoundly as I did today.

I've mentioned we're working on two big singing/dancing numbers – I Wanna Be Like You and Good Morning Baltimore. We were supposed to have a third one, Kings of the World from the originally French musical Romeo and Juliet. Today, however, it was decided that it would be cut because the teachers felt we already had a bunch of stuff to learn and memorize, which was kind of true. But it was a bit sad too, because the song is AWESOME and I'd learned all the lyrics by heart... I'll put a video in here so you can all listen to that song if you haven't already!



We finished off the day with the Mambo number. STAGE RAGE on the loose again! We do this really cool thing where we form two rows and then march and shout insults at each other. When we meet at the center of the stage, each one gets a "fight partner" and we pull each other's hair and SLAP. But not for real, of course – we learned how to do all that so that it only looks real. Result: everyone was hysterical again.

When we were done with that day's course, three of us went shopping for a bit, because we had discussed our props and costumes for the final performance. I went to a costume store to get two witch hats, a cat ears + tail set and a black wig, which, for some unfathomable reason, is prohibited from children under fourteen. Can anybody tell me what's so dangerous about a wig?