SWEENEY TODD | STAGE REVIEW

Sophia Garden’s, Bute Park, Cardiff, Fri 4 July

As the sun went down  on the opening night of this year’s Everyman Open Air Theatre the heaven’s opened. Some may say that it was a stroke of misfortune, others will say that you’re just asking for a downpour by performing open air theatre in Wales, but I felt the bad weather was actually somewhat serendipitous.

When you think about it is there a better setting for a production about murder, deceit and madness than the pouring rain at sunset?

Sweeney Todd follows the tale of the mythic ‘demon barber of fleet street’. Former barber Todd is returning to London after years of being wrongfully imprisoned in Australia. He soon finds out that the wife and daughter he had been dreaming about reuniting with  have gone. His infatuated neighbour, the pie-maker Mrs Lovett, tells Todd that the very judge that locked him away tricked his wife into bed (driving her insane and causing her to poison herself) and adopted Todd’s daughter Joanna.

The tormented Todd is set upon revenge, using his skills and reputation as a barber to do so, and the enamored Mrs Lovett is determined to help him.

Many songs, gory scenes and twists then ensue.

The outdoor setting couldn’t have been better for this show. The stage and timing was designed perfectly to make the most of the fading light – with the world growing darker as the plot did. There were even beautiful unplanned moments that came with doing the show out in the open. When the delicate Joanne (played superbly softly by Olivia Hopper) sang Green Finch And Linnet Bird a pair of birds came flying out the trees and across the background of the show.

Sweeney Todd was played full of rage by David Stephens, making you as scared of him as sympathetic, and Joan Hocter did a great job as Mrs Lovett, bringing some great humour into some of the tenser scenes.

The best performances came in the cartoonish comic relief of swindler Adolfo Pirelli (played by Matthew Preece) and the innocent young Tobias Ragg (played by James Rockey).
Preece seemed to have fun playing the eccentric Italian cliché and came across as a very believable fraud, whereas Rockey was fantastic as the big-hearted young boy and managed to switch from a fairly simple character into a much deeper one as the plot peeled back.

Director Richard Tunley did a great job at making this amateur group come off as entirely professional, with the chaotic ensemble scenes showing a great deal of thought and attention to detail. He also did a great job of making the production their own, and not simply putting the Johnny Depp film version back on the stage.

I did get the impression that some parts of the play (mainly involving the barber’s chair) that came across as funny weren’t supposed to be, but it perhaps added a charm to the show. There were also some technical flaws with the song changes, though this will likely be fixed after opening night.

Largely it was a well thought out and captivating production, with a lot of talent and in a great open space. The finale crawled out beyond the stage and into the audience to hit home the feeling that murder and madness is not something you’re born with, but something that anyone can become. Who would have thought that a summer’s evening in the park could be so menacingly dark…

words HEATHER ARNOLD

Everyman Open Air Theatre Festival, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, Fri 4 July-Sat 2 Aug. Tickets: £7-£16/£25 family ticket