AJ Roadster NJ
04-16-2011, 04:12 PM
My son was in the school play this week, Oliver, based on the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. I was in that play when I was a kid too, but I didn't remember how the character of Nancy played out;
Nancy is the girlfriend of Bill Sykes, the baddest of the bad guys that steals Oliver. She proclaims her love for Bill by singing the love song we all know, As Long as He Needs Me.
Towards the end of Act I, Bill Sykes whacks her so hard that she goes to the ground. Her offense was saying that the gang should return Oliver.
As Act II opens, Nancy appears again, this time with a huge black eye from the beating she took at the hands of Sykes. She reprises As Long as He Needs Me because, of course, a woman must stand with her man, beatings notwithstanding. Ummm....right.
Then, just as Oliver is about to be returned to his father at the end of the play, Bill actually beats her to death with a crowbar right in the middle of the London Bridge.
I couldn't help but look around the auditorium at all the young girls and say, what the heck kind of message just got sent here?
I must be getting old.
AJ
Nancy is the girlfriend of Bill Sykes, the baddest of the bad guys that steals Oliver. She proclaims her love for Bill by singing the love song we all know, As Long as He Needs Me.
Towards the end of Act I, Bill Sykes whacks her so hard that she goes to the ground. Her offense was saying that the gang should return Oliver.
As Act II opens, Nancy appears again, this time with a huge black eye from the beating she took at the hands of Sykes. She reprises As Long as He Needs Me because, of course, a woman must stand with her man, beatings notwithstanding. Ummm....right.
Then, just as Oliver is about to be returned to his father at the end of the play, Bill actually beats her to death with a crowbar right in the middle of the London Bridge.
I couldn't help but look around the auditorium at all the young girls and say, what the heck kind of message just got sent here?
I must be getting old.
AJ