The Everyman, for me, is one of my favourite places in the country – it’s certainly one of my favourite theatres. Magic happens on that stage, and your ticket money is always in safe hands as The Everyman always gives you a superb evening of entertainment. Having been lucky enough to have watched pretty much everything the Everyman Rep Company have put on since their rebirth in 2016, I was gutted to hear they would be ‘taking a pause’ in 2019 amid financial trouble. That said, I was joyed to see some familiar faces in this production directed by Nick Bagnall, Associate Director for the Everyman and Playhouse since 2014, and that it wasn’t a complete hiatus.
Sweeney Todd, as a production, is over 40 years old now and this seminal piece by Stephen Sondeim is truly magnificent. I last saw it at the Minack Theatre, etched into the cliffs of Cornwall, so I am always up for an unconventional telling of this dark masterpiece; I must admit I wasn’t expecting what the Everyman had to offer. The audience were greeted with a circular rotating sheet of perforated steel with patina to match this production’s attempt to unearth the rawness of the working class. The stage, manually manipulated, acted as a further nod to the exploitation and unforgiving labour underpinning and powering hierarchical society. This stripped-back production took some settling in to, and for those expecting the glossed West End telling of this tale, would have been unsettled from the exposition - I was! The performance started altogether static and pedestrian, one would be forgiven to think they had stumbled upon a rehearsed reading as 9 actors and 4 musicians sat on chairs in the round. The iconic visceral and grotesque opening was replaced by the Tarek Merchant, Musical Director on the keys, opening the ‘Ballad’ from the ‘pit’ followed by the company. This unsettled the paradigm of theatre, and this show, but was the first attempt to undress this production and deconstruct it into its elements – it certainly created an element of bathos for those familiar with the stage production. The reduction, or as Tarek put it ‘build[ing] up from the piano’, of the score was superb, making use of a few performers, even if the triangle was mistimed a few times in the 1st act (technically by an actor).
The production quickly forged its new identity as a post-modern, self-aware, naked performance which I grew to love but did take me some time. With the lack of set, and therefore iconic raised platform, the performances were very grounded, something I feel was attempted by the production team, but, as such, omitted opportunity for the powerful tableaux and mise en scène. This left Sweeney less inaccessible, but didactic and direct, and though suited to the politically driven deconstructed production, extracted some of the magic from the character, now a much less enigmatic man in double denim and a boiler suit. That said, the scenography at times was superb, and in the absence of set, a lot was achieved with the best use of a rotating stage outside of Les Mis and Hamilton I believe. It offered so much opportunity for hammering the social message and effective gestus.
Onto the individual characters, all superb in their own right! Liam Tobin: I loved him in Fiddler, Clockwork, and The Sum, and now this. He stripped back the romanticism of Depp’s portrayal, and here we see a crazed beast. His characterisation was superb, and demonstrated a lesson in non-verbal communication from opening to dénouement. Bryan Parry as Anthony Hope was the best I have seen, and eradicated the ‘cringe’ that regular portrayals of this character usually evoke. Keziah Joseph as Johanna was creative and effective, I loved the alternative beauty on offer here, and a real skill on offer demonstrating the entrapment of her character. Kacey Ainsworth as Mrs Lovett took some time to warm to, or chill to I suppose, I feel the scantiness of the staging amplified her characterisation and seemed a little overstressed at the beginning, but I liked her, she grew less eccentric and more authentic as the production developed, she leant more towards Mother Courage style character, a vision of capitalism and greed, throttled from least favorite to best portrayal of the character I have seen. Dean Nolan and Shiv Rabheru as Pirelli and Tobias were also great, I enjoyed this Lucky and Pozzo style relationship and Rabheru did the best job at the ending I have seen, something that usually makes me wince!
The lighting in this production was effective, I feel there was a little more opportunity for creative design and an altogether better attempt at total theatre, but it wasn’t just the usual palette of red hue washes and stage blinders upon which this show usually rests.
In conclusion, I grew to love the show but the opening, something this show is famed for, became a de facto palate cleanser for all glamourous productions of this show before it. I will say one thing, I found myself hearing, and subsequently understanding, about 40% more of the lyrics than in a normal production – it was strange, the reduction of the staging allowed for a new opportunity for the performance to speak to the audience.
Reviewer - Nick Hill
on - 16/4/19
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