What are the themes in Coram Boy?

Coram Boy is a play written by Helen Edmundson with music composed by Adrian Sutton, based on the 2000 children’s novel of the same name by Jamila Gavin, an epic adventure that concerns the theme of child cruelty. The play is called a “play with music”, rather than a musical.

What happens in Coram Boy?

Coram Boy Synopsis Otis takes babies and money off desperate mothers, promising to deliver them to the Coram Foundling Hospital in London. Instead, he murders them and buries them by the roadside, to the helpless horror of his mentally ill son, Mish.

Is Coram Boy based on a true story?

Coram Boy is an amazing piece of historical fiction based in the eighteenth century in both London and Gloucester.

What genre is Coram Boy?

FictionCoram Boy / GenreFiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places in ways that are imaginary or inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a narrow sense, “fiction” refers to written narratives in prose – often limited to novels, novellas, and short stories. Wikipedia

How is Otis presented in Coram Boy?

Otis/Gaddarn/Mrs Lynch – Otis is presented as thoroughly evil and corrupt through the novel, both in his initial guise as the ‘Coram Man’ and as his later alias, Gaddarn.

What does Otis usually do with the babies he is given Coram Boy?

In the background to this is Otis Gardner, known as The Coram Man who makes a vile living in human traffic including taking unwanted babies and, on the promise of delivering them to Coram Hospital to be cared for, in fact takes them out into the woods and with the help of his simpleton son, Meshak (or Mish as it is …

What happens to Toby in Coram Boy?

Toby – Toby was initially cared for by a freed slave, and he tells Aaron his mother is in America. He is lucky to have been taken in by the Coram Hospital, where boys like him would have been well cared for.

What year is Coram Boy set?

eighteenth century
Coram Boy is set in the eighteenth century and based around Thomas Coram’s famed hospital in London.

How does Coram Boy treat meshak?

Meshak is a ‘simpleton’ who is treated cruelly by his father and has no one to share his feelings with other than his dog, Jester. While travelling to Gloucester, Otis brings in five children, whom he refers to as ‘brats’. As they prepare to leave on the ferry, a lady asks if Otis is the Coram man.

Who is meshak?

Coram Boy (play) Coram Boy is a play written by Helen Edmundson with music composed by Adrian Sutton, based on the 2000 children’s novel of the same name by Jamila Gavin, an epic adventure that concerns the theme of child cruelty. The play is called a “play with music”, rather than a musical.

What is Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin about?

Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin is a children’s novel that takes place in the mid-1700s. The plot follows three threads. The first is of “The Coram Man,” and his son Meshak, who murder and traffic illegitimate children under the guise of shepherding them to the Coram Hospital.

How is Coram Boy performed?

Coram Boy is frequently produced in Britain by Universities, Drama schools and amateur groups. The production also included a local cast of Coram children and a local ensemble. In the National Theatre and Broadway versions the music is performed by a 16-member onstage choir and a seven-piece chamber orchestra.

What is the Coram Man and Meshak?

The first is of “The Coram Man,” and his son Meshak, who murder and traffic illegitimate children under the guise of shepherding them to the Coram Hospital. The second is of Alexander, the son of a wealthy family who would rather become a musician than inherit the family estate.