June 25, 2009
Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a 1973 play by Christopher Bond, is given a rousing revival at The Old Fire Station by a cast of nine 17 and 18 year old students from the Oxford Cherwell Valley College which specialises in the performing arts.
This version of the old 18th century legend which first appeared in printed form in a Penny Dreadful comic, gives Todd a more sympathetic motive than mere blood-lust. He is a wrongfully imprisoned barber who returns to London after 15 years in Botany Bay to find that the judge responsible for his imprisonment has raped his young wife and driven her to suicide. Todd swears revenge, but when his plans are slow in coming to fruition, he begins on a wholesale murder spree.
The strength of the Hope version of the tale lies in the revenge motive of our anti-hero and the way in which he is no cardboard villain but a man for whom we can feel initial sympathy. As the play goes on Todd changes in that his original blood-lust turns into base greed and psycopathy so that his quest becomes hopelessly compromised.
On a sweltering Oxford night, the chilling, apparently unpromising subject matter is given high-energy treatment by tutor/director Mark Ralph-Bowman and cast, fit to match the temperature. Apart from the odd prop, the grey-backdropped stage is entirely bare throughout; the cast themselves simulate the barber's dread chair and even tables with impressive verisimilitude. The direction is beautifully fluid in that elements of physical theatre are employed - mime, dance and stylised fight sequences - often to eclectic but always appropriate music. Mozart's Requiem slyly precedes some of the murders, and we are successively treated to tea dance piano, pounding Rock and even Doris Day's How Much is that Doggy in the Window! There are also two very effective uses of film.
Among several stand-out scenes, there's a darkly comic shaving contest involving great movement and a verbal duel between the Beadle and Todd's murderous sidekick Mrs Lovett (the excellent Fabhiola Carpio). The cast of nine is uniformly outstanding. Johnny Jones who plays Sweeney Todd commands the stage in a long and demanding role. His hoarse voice and swagger almost but not quite hide his vulnerability. His handling of a key soliloquy as he speaks directly to the audience announcing the onset of a more general killing spree, is compelling. Jimi Davson as the craven judge is first-class in speech and in movement, Liz Cox is sympathetic as the wronged Johanna, Emma Thorpe a feisty, jack-in-the-box Tobias.
The only small complaint I have was the absence of a programme - not for the first time in recent student productions. In my view a simple cast list/programme is not an optional extra but a necessity.
This was a richly entertaining evening, and I salute all concerned.
This version of the old 18th century legend which first appeared in printed form in a Penny Dreadful comic, gives Todd a more sympathetic motive than mere blood-lust. He is a wrongfully imprisoned barber who returns to London after 15 years in Botany Bay to find that the judge responsible for his imprisonment has raped his young wife and driven her to suicide. Todd swears revenge, but when his plans are slow in coming to fruition, he begins on a wholesale murder spree.
The strength of the Hope version of the tale lies in the revenge motive of our anti-hero and the way in which he is no cardboard villain but a man for whom we can feel initial sympathy. As the play goes on Todd changes in that his original blood-lust turns into base greed and psycopathy so that his quest becomes hopelessly compromised.
On a sweltering Oxford night, the chilling, apparently unpromising subject matter is given high-energy treatment by tutor/director Mark Ralph-Bowman and cast, fit to match the temperature. Apart from the odd prop, the grey-backdropped stage is entirely bare throughout; the cast themselves simulate the barber's dread chair and even tables with impressive verisimilitude. The direction is beautifully fluid in that elements of physical theatre are employed - mime, dance and stylised fight sequences - often to eclectic but always appropriate music. Mozart's Requiem slyly precedes some of the murders, and we are successively treated to tea dance piano, pounding Rock and even Doris Day's How Much is that Doggy in the Window! There are also two very effective uses of film.
Among several stand-out scenes, there's a darkly comic shaving contest involving great movement and a verbal duel between the Beadle and Todd's murderous sidekick Mrs Lovett (the excellent Fabhiola Carpio). The cast of nine is uniformly outstanding. Johnny Jones who plays Sweeney Todd commands the stage in a long and demanding role. His hoarse voice and swagger almost but not quite hide his vulnerability. His handling of a key soliloquy as he speaks directly to the audience announcing the onset of a more general killing spree, is compelling. Jimi Davson as the craven judge is first-class in speech and in movement, Liz Cox is sympathetic as the wronged Johanna, Emma Thorpe a feisty, jack-in-the-box Tobias.
The only small complaint I have was the absence of a programme - not for the first time in recent student productions. In my view a simple cast list/programme is not an optional extra but a necessity.
This was a richly entertaining evening, and I salute all concerned.