UK Theatre Network

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

A Performers Stage School presentation

The Customs House, South Shields, Tyne & Wear

Stephen Sondheim’s gothic Victorian melodrama, ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’, has been brought vividly to life by the pupils of Performers Stage School.

Under the expert direction of principal David Ducasse, the youngsters skilfully portray the story of the infamous barber who, having returned to London from a sentence of hard labour in Australia for a crime he did not commit, vents his rage upon unsuspecting customers.

While waiting for the opportunity to exact his revenge on Judge Turpin, the man who abused the barber’s wife and appointed himself ward of his teenage daughter, Johanna, Todd enters into a macabre pact with Nellie Lovett, the proprietor of the flagging pie shop beneath his premises.

Danny Emmerson-Ducasse and Lucy Stephenson head an extremely talented cast as Sweeney and Nellie, whilst strong supporting roles are delivered by Michael Mather, Rebecca Hancock, Heather Robinson and Laura Rea. The show combines moments of gore and humour perfectly and the musical numbers are clever and witty.

Special mention must also be made of the fantastic dual-layered set, which allows the audience to witness Sweeney Todd’s victims fall through a trap door into Mrs Lovett’s bake-house to their awaiting fates, having received more than just a ‘short-back-and-sides.’ Well, they say that acting is a cut-throat business!

Lighting and sound effects ensure that the chilling atmosphere of Victorian London’s squalor is almost tangible.

This production must surely be the most ambitious that the stage school has undertaken to date, but their audacity resulted in a show that is an undisputed theatrical triumph.

At curtain call the cast were rewarded with a rapturous applause from the packed auditorium.

Steve Burbridge.