A different understanding of "evil" Bill Sikes in Chichester Festival Theatre's Oliver!

It’s an approach that leads to a different understanding of the character that Aaron is playing, Bill Sikes.

“We have tried to approach the drama in a less conventional way and to explore new dimensions within it. We have a much younger Fagin for a start than has ever been portrayed before but we also have a much more physically imposing Fagin. Simon (Lipkin) is six foot two and a big guy and that immediately brings a new dimension but we've also tried to find a new relationship between Bill and Nancy. Traditionally they have always been introduced at a place of relative conflict but we have tried to show them in love and to show a connection between them at the start of their journey. It feels important to see the peak before we have the trough and I don't think that's been done before. We try to give a feeling of who Bill and Nancy are and why they are together. There is a phenomenal song that Nancy sings, As Long As He Needs Me, where she explores all the reasons she is with Bill but from the audience point of view you have never usually really seen those reasons before.

“Usually Bill is thought of as being absolutely evil but I didn't want to create an almost panto-esque villain. You think about his background and living in poverty and really he is the product of his surroundings. He is the perfect antithesis to Oliver. Bill has chosen one way and Oliver has chosen another. We see Oliver as so pure and so innocent and Bill is so awful but my job is to have sympathy with the character however awful. He didn't have much choice in life but to become a thief. For him it's all about survival. And if you are the one that everyone is scared of, then your chances of survival are increased. And he's taken Nancy on that journey with him. I wanted to show much more of the co-dependency between them. But really what is the chip that creates the crack is Fagin’s manipulation. Fagin has lost this child that he has opened his home to with all his worldly secrets, and that shouldn't affect Bill too much but Fagin manipulates Bill to get Oliver back and that creates the difficulty between Nancy and Bill. Nancy thinks they should let him go, and that creates a divide between them when they had been so united. And that void begins to grow between them. We have also played with the idea that everybody in his life has betrayed Bill apart from Nancy and now he feels she has betrayed him, and it creates this traumatic reversion. He lapses to what he was and he loses control and it's not just anybody losing control. When he loses control, he is incredibly dangerous.”

Tough moments to play: “But we have worked very much with intimacy directors to help us with the psychological resets. It's incredibly heavy for Shanay (Holmes as Nancy) and myself and we have had to protect ourselves and look after ourselves. But my collaboration with Shanay on this show has been one of the best in my entire career. She is just a wonderful, wonderful actress to work with.”