Written by Assistant Director, Scott Anderson
I remember feeling quite excited when Blackout decided that our next production was going to be Sweeney Todd. I guess if you are going to do a musical, you may as well do one of the greatest musicals ever written. Although au fait with the story, I enjoyed researching its origins and how it came to be - from a penny dreadful in a newspaper publication to Steven Sondheim's spectacular version.
Our Director Susie Dumbreck shared her vision for the show and encouraged me to delve deeper into the past and to research who the people were and what life was like. I began by reading The People of The Abyss written by Jack Lowden. It's a non-fiction book that is an account of the working and lower class people in the East End of London. The times were dark but the people were colourful. A simpler happier time ...absolutely not!
Visually I looked at the work of both William Hogarth and Gustave Doré, two different time periods but both able to bring to life what looked like a wretched existence for the working and lower classes of London. The London from the past I knew a bit about is the one portrayed in the 70s television show Upstairs Downstairs - Edwardian London for the upper classes was a different world entirely for the working classes of that time and the previous era's but it was a great introduction to the the strong and carefully managed divided in the British class system.
One place that the classes did mix was in the world of entertainment and in particular, the Music Halls of London. Already a fan of the Victorian Music Hall Legend - Marie Lloyd (a woman I consider to be the Madonna of her time), I got to research all the popular acts, the people that ran the music halls and the people that frequented them. It was a real mixed bag and I know that in a previous life I would have found myself either on the stage or working backstage. Like our own world of theatre in Edinburgh it was a strong community filled with real characters.
All this research was brought together for our Sweeney Todd auditions when mood boards were placed in the hall to help people get a sense of the world we were looking to create. When Susie stood in front of the cast and shared her vision there was a real excitement , you could feel it in the air. Adding a new layer of storytelling to this piece has allowed our cast to find and develop their characters, bringing to life these ghosts from the past .
Whilst writing this, we are are in the final stages of pulling the show together and although our rehearsal set is nothing but tape markings on the floor, a few tables, an old razor and our actors are in their own clothing, our team (which includes cast, production and our creative team) have opened a door to the past and invite you in to witness a world of love, manipulation, murder and cannibalism... all of which is set to an award winning score. Enjoy this show about love. Enjoy this show about revenge. Enjoy this show about them... or is it a show about you?
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