Unexpected Twist review

As Shona, Drew Hylton makes a confident lead, proving herself a hugely charismatic performer with a powerful singing voice. Hylton captures both Shona’s toughness and inner fragility, clearly portraying her conflict between seeking quick fixes and making lasting positive change. Alexander Lobo Moreno plays the Dodger-ish Tino, capable of both disarming amiability and sudden, dangerous turns. He raps skilfully, too, providing a rough-edged vocal counterpoint to Hylton’s melodic singing. Meanwhile, Rosie Hilal is strong as schoolteacher Miss Cavani, struggling to inspire her stressed, exhausted and undernourished students. She’s a satisfyingly complex character, courageous but guilt-ridden at her inability to get through to her young charges, inspiring yet trapped in an abusive relationship of her own.

Lighting by Rory Beaton is bold and dynamic, frequently raking the audience with dazzling blinders or plunging areas of the stage into moody, ink-blue shadows. At one point, a jagged web of narrowly focused beams closes in on the characters, trapping them in a prison of steel-grey light.

Dacre directs with verve and precision, his staging often frenetically busy but never cluttered. Every bustling ensemble scene is filled with characterful interactions: kids bicker, banter, scuffle and slip each other suspicious packages as they race about. Occasionally, figures dressed in ragged period costumes burst out of lockers to play out tiny fragments of Dickens’ story from his original text, underlining the connections between the 19th-century narrative and all-too-similar events still taking place today.