'Sweeney Todd' At Chichester

On Saturday we left dear old London behind to journey back in time to the London of the 1930's to see many, many murders and much madness. Or rather, we went to Chichester to see a fine production of Sondheim's 'Sweeney Todd' as part of the arts festival. This production stars Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball in the leading roles of Mrs Lovett and Mr Todd, a good partnership.

The last time I saw 'Sweeney Todd' on stage was a few years ago in the dire production when the actors filled and emptied endless buckets of blood. Why? Who knows. It certainly didn't work for me. Of course, since then we've had the film with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter so 'Sweeney' is a bit more mainstream and you all probably know the tale by now. The tale of Sweeney returning to London to wreak revenge on the judge who split up his family and sent him to overseas to a penal colony. Of course, revenge is a strange dish and strange things can happen on the way.

Any production needs to get the right actors to play Sweeney and Mrs Lovett, one is dark and brooding and the other brings some light and shade and no little much-needed humour. I've never seen Michael Ball before but can appreciate his voice and abilities now that I've seen him as Sweeney Todd. Imelda Staunton is the perfect foil, never ending talking, perfect comic timing and just the right hint of repressed sexuality wanting Mr Todd. Imelda is the pink-on-pink teacher in the 'Harry Potter' films so you've probably seen her before, and I saw her on stage a few years ago as the repressed middle age woman in 'Entertaining Mr Sloane' (including seeing her virtually naked in a see-through nighty).

The set has been moved forward from Victorian London to the London of the 1930s, mainly signalled by the length of the frocks and the cute little van used for the shaving competition. Sweeney's barbershop was a detached piece of the set that came forward across the stage with sufficient space underneath for the dead bodies to accumulate.

This is quite a harrowing show. There's a bit of everything in there, from old loves to new love, evil and revenge, hope and despair, and some of the scenes of throat slashing and blood spurting got a few odd laughs from the audience but I suspect that was more about relieving the tension than any comedic effect. I thought it was an excellent production and was happy to join in the standing ovation at the end - they've earned it!

As a postscript, I've never been to Chichester before but it seems to be a nice little town near the Sussex coast with a nice cathedral, about 1.5 hours from London. It's built with roads very descriptively and geographically named North Street, East Street, etc, just like a compass. The audience was rather odd but then again it was a matinee and matinees the world over seem to comprise older people in their best theatre-going garb. I don't know if the show was sold out but it was certainly very full, and that's encouraging.