What a wonderful production of Oliver Twist this is, bringing new life to a familiar story in such an imaginative way – and so much more dramatically than the film version.

Director Amy Leach has brought the very best out of the 60 youngsters who take part in this annual event.

Amy, of En Masse Theatre, is back for a second year following the success of last season's Grimm Brothers' Circus.

Clever staging transforms the Ball Park into teeming 19th century alleyways and garrets, and simple costumes of white long johns with the addition of a top hat here, a skirt or a coat there, provide all the character definition we need.

Permission was sought from Neil Bartlett, who adapted this version from the Charles Dickens novel, to transfer the action to Bath and so events take place from Radstock to Royal Crescent and from Pulteney Bridge to Bristol.

It is tragic and funny in turn and the climax is truly dramatic – helped not a little by excellent use of percussive sound and lighting that casts long eerie shadows against the high walls of the Ball Court.

There are strong performances from 13-year-old Harry Miller as Oliver Twist, Ludo Jean Francis as the Dodger, Josiah East as Fagin, and Tristan Head as Bill Sykes.

Grace Humphries is good as the kind-hearted Nancy and there are lots of very cute, lively young pickpockets in Fagin's gang.

It's easy to heap praise on the half dozen or so performers who take the lead roles, but the show is so much more than that, with numerous others adding music, humour and vivacity in a variety of ways.

For an opening night – and with such a large cast - there was barely a muffed line or a foot out of step.

The tension must have been running high as a downpour an hour before the show threatened cancellation of the performance – but, as ever, the show must go on and so it did, slightly soggily but a bare ten minutes late.

And it was worth braving every drop of rain to see it.

The show runs until Sunday August 22 at 8pm each night, with extra matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2.30pm. Call the box office of the Theatre Royal Bath on 01225 44844 or visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk

Jackie Chappell