Obviously Evelyn’s play has really stuck with Oliver, because he has taken to drawing some extremely elaborate pictures of some of the scenes.

For example:

What you see here are striking miners and police (plies). The miners are holding signs like “not enough $”, “not enough protection”, and, of course “not a naf brts”.

I said, “Not enough birds?” (you get pretty good at guessing these things after you’ve seen enough of it). Ollie said, “When the birds die, the miners know it’s not safe. So I guess that one is the same as ‘not enough protection’.”

Not enough birds indeed.

The bottom is the lyrics of the song accompanying that scene:

solidarity, solidarity
solidarity for ever
all for one, one for all
solidarity forever

I had forgotten about that picture altogether, when I came across this one a week or so later:

My first guess was (naturally) someone killing a zombie, but then I followed the arrow and flipped the picture over…

And you can OBVIOUSLY SEE it is not a zombie who has been shot in the head coming to terrorize frightened children, but rather Tony, his face bloodied by a run in with the cops, accidentally frightening the ballet girls, who run to Mrs. Wilkinson for comfort. And of course the miners are chanting, “Scab! Scab! Scab!” at those who chose to cross the picket line.

Ollie did see the show twice, but even so I’m kind of surprised at how much some of these images have stuck with him. These are definitely specific scenes from the show, and it’s interesting which parts call to him. He doesn’t, for example, draw Billy’s triumphant dream sequence dance. No, it’s all bloody miners and police brutality.

I do kind of wish he wouldn’t draw them at school, though.