Show: Sweeney Todd
Format: Musical
Genre: Drama
Date: April 16 2019
Location: Everyman Theatre, Liverpool
On its 40th anniversary, Sweeney Todd finds a new resonance in this Everyman Theatre production.
This is a play that does not make excuses. Rather, it lays before us the circumstances that can drive someone to the brink.
Sweeney Todd
Description Of Sweeney Todd
The poverty and the hopelessness of existence in a city where nobody is given the break they need is highlighted in the song ‘The Worst Pies in London,’ with Kacey Ainsworth’s Mrs Lovett stating that it is hard to make a good pie with limited meat. The in-the-round staging helps magnify the play’s bold statements on how corruption at the top sets the tone for a world where everyone is out for themselves. Keeping certain actors, though technically off stage, visible and accessible, emphasises the outside pressures and obstacles always present for Todd, Mrs Lovett, Johanna and Anthony.
This is a world where victims, unable to seek revenge on their oppressors, take their frustration and anger out on those around them. Corruption begets corruption. Cruelty begets cruelty. Mrs Lovett is the perfect example; herself treated cruelly and looked down upon, she treats the beggar woman with brutal violence and contempt, especially when there is a chance that this woman will threaten what little she has.
Analysis Of Sweeney Todd
The play does not paint Mrs Lovett and Todd as innocents (that would make for a very different play). The poor are equally open to corruption, but they have a clear disadvantage on making good, thanks to the environmental factors around them. Liam Tobin’s portrayal of Todd is rich, layered and masterful. He is both a broken man and the embodiment of rage.
Todd’s missed opportunity to achieve his vengeance early on leads to the wider destruction of the world around him. This is a world where using the by-product of that vengeance – dead bodies – in pies, is an acceptable part of the discourse – enterprising even. The city eats up its people, so the people are biting back.
Kacey Ainsworth is perfectly cast as Mrs Lovett. She moves seamlessly from channelling the vulnerabilities of her Eastenders character Little Mo, to a woman motivated to achieve her aim of escaping London for a life by the sea – no matter what it takes. Paul Duckworth is suitably creepy as Judge Turpin, disguising his lusts under the cloak of respectability. Mark Rice-Oxley takes a stock sidekick character to the next level with his wit.
Voices
The voices of the cast are impeccable. Keziah Joseph delivers a near-perfect vocal, with the ability to convey both sweetness and fierceness. Her partnership with Anthony (played by Bryan Parry) injects the right amount of tenderness and optimism so as not to jar with the shady world around them. Shiv Rabheru (Tobias) makes for a fantastic clown figure, whose character becomes more and more faceted as the play goes on.
In true Everyman style, everybody is involved. The four-person band becomes engaged in the action with great comedic effect. The audience are spoken to and enacted with – with gentleness of course. One gentleman, in particular, was given a loving caress by the effervescent Pirelli (Dean Nolan) causing much hilarity. Nolan’s larger than life portrayal of the mountebank was a show-stealer – his sales patter excellent, which had the audience roaring with laughter.
Tragedy
For a revenge tragedy about a man who slits people’s throats, there is not an over-abundance of blood-stage effects. But it’s unnecessary. So, the pace and the production design capture a grimy city. And the rotating grid that makes up the stage works in tandem with the music to speed up and slow down the tempo of the stage action. Furthermore, the action leads up to a well-paced climax as the world that Todd and Lovett have created for themselves amongst the grime and cruelty of London crumbles around them.
An epilogue or a reflection on the future of those still standing at the end would ease the jagged edges. And a resolution would go some way to comfort the audience. But, perhaps that is the point.
Summary Of Sweeney Todd
In closing, Sweeney Todd is an epic Everyman Theatre production. As for what we should do next in a society that literally chews up its most vulnerable? That’s for the audience to answer.
