LIVERMORE FALLS – Murder, mayhem, pickpockets, orphans and more will be featured in “Oliver” on the high school stage Friday and Saturday when it is transformed into the seedy side of 19th-century Victorian England.

Oliver, Fagin, Nancy, Bill Sykes, the Bumbles and the Artful Dodger are among the characters who perform at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, and Saturday, Dec. 2, in the two-act play – an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist,” presented by the Livermore Falls High School Community Musical Theatre.

Fathers and sons, mothers and sons and community members from Livermore Falls, Wilton, Jay, Livermore and Fayette take to the stage for the performance under the guidance of Director Anne Weatherbee.

“I think we’re unique in what we do, what we offer to the community and the kids,” Weatherbee said Saturday, as she watched scenes play out. “We have about 40 people in the cast. We have 18 children who are orphans and pickpockets.”

The majority of the children are from the elementary school level with a couple from the middle school.

Dan Labonte, a teacher in SAD 43, is the musical director for the play.

The play’s story line follows Oliver, portrayed by 10-year-old Ian Jewett, a young orphan who ends up being an apprentice for an undertaker. He escapes and is taken in by the Artful Dodger, played by Aubray Landry.

The Dodger takes Oliver to the thieves’ kitchen and Fagan, portrayed by Peter Campion, leads him into the world of the pickpockets, Weatherbee said.

“We have some very fun music; some is very sad,” she said.

Weatherbee heads to the stage for a scene change from the thieves’ kitchen as laundry hanging on a line comes down and a pink Victorian-era arm chair emerges in a workhouse, as do the Bumbles, portrayed by the Rev. Rick Mesana and Cathy Wilcox, caretakers of the orphanage.

In this particular scene, Mr. Bumble is deciding that becoming a married man is not as great as he thought it would be, Weatherbee said, as Mrs. Bumble goes into a tirade.

Eric Jewett, Ian’s father, who is cast as bad guy Bill Sykes, said that Oliver ends up in an orphanage after his mother dies and he’s really from a wealth family and in the end, he makes it back to them.

“This is the second time we’re doing this as a family,” Wilcox, a teacher at the Livermore Elementary School, said.

Her three sons, twins Adam and Andrew, and Josh play three pickpockets and orphans.

“This is such as well-guarded secret for a little town,” she said of the Livermore Falls High School Community Musical Theatre.

Landry, a high school senior, is cast as the Artful Dodger and is the lead pickpocket.

She and her sidekick, Charlie Bates, played by Keith Jewett, take Oliver under their wing.

“This year the play’s awesome,” Landry said. “We really have a great cast.”

As another scene changes, high school junior Michelle Morlock, playing Nancy, who was raised as a pickpocket, sits down on the edge of the stage to sing “As Long As He Needs Me.”

Morlock said she is finding it easier to sing in front of an audience, “since we rehearse in front of so many people. I’ll be prepared for a large crowd.”

As the next scene goes on, Morlock’s counterpart, Caryn Howell who also portrays Nancy, tries to hold on to Oliver but he is grabbed by Sykes, who then turns his rage on Nancy.

“Help. Help. Murder,” a cast member yells.