Nicola Lisle chats to Sweeney Todd director James Brining about the demon barber

As dark and sinister tales go, they don’t come much darker or more sinister than Sweeney Todd, the terrifyingly macabre portrait of a barber whose lust for revenge turns him into a depraved monster.

Almost 40 years after it was written, Stephen Sondheim’s music and lyrics still powerfully stir the emotions as Todd embarks on his murderous rampage, giving his customers rather more of a close shave than they bargained for.

His victims usually end up in one of the pies baked by Mrs Lovett, his willing accomplice.

Next week, Welsh National Opera brings Sondheim’s musical thriller to the New Theatre, Oxford, in a new production directed by James Brining.

In a bid to make the story resonate with today’s audiences, James has moved the action from its original Victorian setting to the 1980s – a move that is partly shaped by his own memories of that era.

“I lived in Leeds in the 1970s and ‘80s, and I can remember various things from that time,” he says.

“The Yorkshire Ripper was at large, and I remember living in a city where there was a real sense of fear. I also remember the late ‘70s and early ‘80s when there was a sense of social turmoil from the Winter of Discontent through to the Brixton Riots.

“There was a sense of society creaking and straining, a sense of the establishment having power and exploiting people without that power, and there were huge injustices.

“I’m not saying these things were unique to that time, because I think those kind of things continue to happen.

“It just felt to me that it reduces the political impact of this piece if we think, this is 150 years ago, this is nothing to do with us now.

“But these things happen all the time – now, 20 years ago, 150 years ago. That’s really the reason for bringing it closer to us.

“Our job as artists is to interpret material and to put a lens up in front of it which allows us to see how it speaks to us now, not to represent it as it was then.”

James is also keen to draw out the human side of Todd, whose actions stem from being dealt a miscarriage of justice at the hands of a corrupt judge. To begin with, at least, it is Todd who is the victim.

“My interpretation of him is that he isn’t a monster from the start, but he is a very identifiable human being who has had a terrible injustice done to him, and whose objective at the start is to discover what happened to his wife and child.

“On discovering that, circumstances push him to become something that he clearly isn’t at the start. And I think the question this poses is what kind of depredations would we have to live through before we became monsters ourselves?

“Psychologically, it is really complex. It really grips people.

“Although Todd is driven by desire for revenge, I think it is deeper and more fundamental than that. It’s a story of a man who disintegrates, yet somehow at the end he is still the man we met at the beginning.”

Todd is played by German singer David Arnsperger, who is making his WNO debut and whose previous credits include the title roles in Phantom of the Opera, Jekyll and Hyde and Rocky.

Mrs Lovett is sung by Scottish soprano Janis Kelly, with other roles taken by singers from a mix of different musical backgrounds.

“We auditioned a whole range of performers, from opera through to musical theatre,” explains James.

Oxford Mail:

  • David Arnsperger (Sweeney Todd)

“We’ve tried to create a blend, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that!”

For James, the chorus is a key element in the show. “There’s something about the chorus in Sweeney Todd which is absolutely critical for me.

“It’s a piece of work in which the chorus is a character. The chorus frames the story; they tell us what’s going to happen.

“I’ve set it in an asylum because all of these people have some vested interest in what Sweeney Todd represents. They all have some sort of relationship with revenge. They’re disempowered and disenfranchised; they feel angry and victimised, which makes them the outsider in society.

“There’s a scene that’s essentially a riot and they break out of the asylum. So what we’re using is a framework telling the story which ultimately feeds back into itself.”

Why, I wonder, is Sweeney Todd such a popular piece, despite its grisly storyline?

“The reason I think it’s popular – and one of the things I love about it – is that it’s got originality and great emotional traction.

“It’s about important, serious things, but it’s done in a way that is thrilling. It grips you as a story, and its content is really powerful.

“I think audiences will find it exciting, gripping and moving, and there is humour in it as well. Hopefully it will entertain, provoke, challenge, amuse and appal.”

Where and when
Welsh National Opera: Sweeney Todd
New Theatre, Oxford
Nov 5-7, 7.15pm
Tickets: 0844 871 3020/atgtickets.com/oxford