Getting the point across

here, let me help you grind your axe

Theater directors and writers often tell people what to act on and how - it is a direct-address genre. Both of the National Theatre plays I have watched with my family recently, Prima Facie and Oliver Twist, had the performers look straight at the audience, sum up the show, and clearly ask them to act.

This production ended with the above performers in the modern version of their characters’ clothes. This is an obvious parallel; but they didn’t leave it to chance. They asked, “Imagine a story from a long time ago. Or is it?”

I don’t mind having it spelled out for me. So much improved because Charles Dickens wrote those compelling works. And, then you peel back a layer and realize so much is the same.