Tehran, November 16 (MNA) – The musical drama “Oliver Twist” directed by Hossein Parsay was performed on Friday evening, November 14, 2025, at the Enherab Sports Club complex.
“Oliver Twist” is the second novel by British author Charles Dickens. The work was originally serialized from 1837 to 1839 and published as a three-volume book in 1838. The story is about the titular orphan who, after being raised in a workhouse, escapes to London, where he meets a group of boy pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin, discovers the secret of parentage, and is reunited with his remaining family.
Rather than romanticizing the sordid lives of criminals, “Oliver Twist” exposes the cruel treatment of many orphans in mid-19th century England.
As an early example of social fiction, Dickens satirizes child labor, domestic violence, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the existence of street children. The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan who worked as a child laborer in a cotton mill in the 1830s.
Dickens’s own experiences as a young man were also likely to have contributed, given that he spent two years of his life in a workhouse at the age of 12 and was subsequently denied part of his education.
“Oliver Twist” has been the subject of numerous film adaptations, including the 1948 film of the same name starring Alec Guinness as Fagin. The hit musical “Oliver!” (which itself was made into an Oscar-winning 1968 film), and Disney’s 1988 animated feature film Oliver & Company.