SWEENEY TODD. The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Director: Fred Abrahamse. Musical Director: Jaco Griessel. Cast: Marcel Meyer, Zoë McLaughlin, Graham Bourne and more. Olympia Bakery, Kalk Bay.
BEVERLEY BROMMERT reviews
Forty-five years after its original Broadway première, Sweeney Todd has lost none of its potent appeal. In the hands of an adroit director (Fred Abrahamse), aided by indefatigable piano accompaniment (Jaco Griessel), this current production’s two-and-a-half hour duration seems considerably shorter.
Sondheim’s Gothic musical is a quirky hybrid of hypnotic music and spine-chilling horror à la silent movie; all the clichés of melodrama are presented with a tongue-in-cheek lightness of touch that cloaks darker, thought-provoking issues motivating human behaviour.
Set in 19th century London, the demonic barber’s tale of pain and revenge unfolds with the inexorability of Greek tragedy, taking the credulous audience along for a hair-raising ride.
Its impact owes as much to a specific milieu as to universal relevance, and the choice of an earthy venue such as Kalk Bay’s boutique bakery, referencing the infamous little pie shop in Fleet Street as the venue for Sweeney’s latest enactment, is nothing short of inspired.
As if the plot were not sufficiently unnerving, the audience is seated in the middle of the action as characters emerge or exit through their ranks, the T-shaped stage intersecting their seats in this most intimate of dramas. Complicity between actors and spectators is carried to the limit.
Frequent murders
As usual, Marcel Meyer’s meticulously researched period costumes in ponderous late Victorian style evoke the age to perfection, the predominance of monochrome appropriately challenged by touches of vivid scarlet, colour of passion and blood. Gore also appears whenever another murder is executed (frequently).
Meyer leads the cast of eight with all the authority demanded by the role of the eponymous barber, his voice more than equal to its vocal challenge.
Graham Bourne, as the evil Judge Turpin, is well cast and a worthy adversary for Todd, while Zoë McLaughlin gives her best performance to date in her portrayal of the enterprising Nellie Lovett.
Also noteworthy is the contribution of Jeani Heyns, versatile in the widely diverse personae of a beggar woman and an Italian shyster.
The only downside of the Olympia is the venue’s unforgiving acoustic quality, no friend to young or less experienced players unable to project or articulate with the requisite clarity to do justice to the lyrics and script; the piano dominates their performance relentlessly.
There is little to fault in their portrayals, however: Zoë Gray, as the vulnerable Johanna, is a delightful heroine with whom her romantic partner Anthony, played by William Young, generates engaging chemistry.
Highly recommended
On reflection, after attending this grisly, riveting musical in which human tragedy fuses with grand Guignol, it becomes clear that this is not an exercise in gratuitous horror for its own none-too-sweet sake.
It offers a salutary lesson: apart from inspiring caution as to the contents of meat pies, one should bear in mind that revenge and violence are liable to inflict as much harm on their executant as on the intended victim. A paradoxical plea for humanity … highly recommended.
What: Sweeney Todd
Where and when: Olympia Bakery, Kalk Bay until 24 March 2024
Tickets: Quicket
WS
