Northland theatre company takes musical behind bars

The musical Oliver! by the Kerikeri Theatre Company at the Turner Centre, Kerikeri. Photo / Peter de Graaf

A Northland theatre company is taking its show behind bars today to thank prisoners for building the sets.

Kerikeri Theatre Company has just wrapped up seven performances of Oliver!, a musical based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist and performed at the Turner Centre.

The show had a cast of more than 40, ranging in age from 6 to 74, plus a large team of volunteers charged with everything from costume-making to publicity.

The musical Oliver! by the Kerikeri Theatre Company at the Turner Centre, Kerikeri. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Thanks to a link with Ngawha Prison - one of the actresses is a Corrections officer - even prisoners helped out, despite being unable to go to the musical.

Oliver! director Barbara Kirkman said the inmates built and painted a series of movable scenes representing various interiors, including the funeral parlour where the young Oliver is put to work and a pub called The Three Cripples.

To show their gratitude, some of the cast would perform excerpts from the musical at the jail today.

"We wanted to thank the prison for their work. They didn't charge for materials or their time, it was a generous thing to do."

It was not possible to perform the whole show because several of the stars were children - the two actors who shared the role of Oliver are aged just 10 and 12 - who were not allowed inside the prison.

The show's musicians were not available today so their place would be taken by the prison band.

Ms Kirkman said the prisoner-built sets had been dismantled and stored for future productions.

The bigger sets, such as London Bridge, had been built by show volunteers using donated scaffolding.

The show had sold 1600 tickets, enough to cover costs. Of the Kerikeri Theatre Company productions to date, that made it second only to last year's Peter Pan in ticket sales.

Even the storyline fits the venue for today's performance. It features a pickpocketing gang and a violent thug, with its main character is a young boy who is caught up in a criminal gang but eventually finds redemption with his long-lost family.