HARRISONBURG
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is making his way to Main Street.
Set in 1840s London, the sold-out production of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts follows the story of Benjamin Barker, who is unjustly exiled to Australia by Judge Turpin.
While Barker is imprisoned, Turpin, who is in love with Barker’s wife Lucy, rapes the woman, causing her to take a vial of poison in a suicide attempt. Instead of killing her, though, the poison drives her insane, and Turpin raises the Barkers’ daughter, Johanna, as his own.
After returning to the city 15 years later, Barker believes his wife to be dead from the poison and vows revenge on Turpin for his abuse of power. Taking the name Sweeney Todd, Barker opens a barbershop and practices for his revenge on Turpin by killing others.
A committee of faculty members from the School of Theatre and Dance chose the production because of its learning value for students.
The play takes a character who commits traditional “bad guy” acts and makes him the protagonist of the story. But the back-story gives audience members an understanding of why Sweeney does what he does, Director Kate Arecchi said.
“The world is so oppressive that the behavior of the characters starts to make sense because the character we would see as the bad guy, you see what they are motivated by,” she said.
Musically challenging
With complex musical arrangements by Stephen Sondheim, the play presented an exciting challenge, Arecchi said, noting that “there’s very little dialogue that’s just spoken.”
“[T]here are a lot of things to consider for the performer, because almost everything they say … is somehow set to music,” said
Arecchi. “There’s a rhythm, there’s a tempo, there’s a pace that’s built into the acting moments, so the actors have to make their [lines] fit within that meter.”
Sophomore Katie Beianchi, who is making her first appearance in a Mainstage production, agreed that the musical aspects of the production were challenging.
“It can be difficult to sing — there’s a lot of clashing and a lot of dissonance,” said Beianchi, who plays Lucy.
Still, that music can help the thespians develop their characters because of Sondheim’s character- and plot-driven focus, Beianchi, 19, said.
“He does a great job of portraying the story through his music and you really can’t ignore any of his direction,” she said.
Character development
Ross Neal, the 20-year-old junior who plays Sweeney, has been trying to develop a memorable character without rehashing some of the traits from other iconic portrayals of the protagonist.
“It’s certainly been interesting, especially with the Johnny Depp movie that came out lately and people have that image and it’s hard not to play into that character,” Neal said about preparing for the role. “It’s been me working with the script and finding things that work for me with the character.”
Still, he’s excited about the character he’s developed, noting that previous portrayals of Todd left areas he could experiment with.
In helping the actors develop their characters, Arecchi had students choose an animal to develop their portrayals.
For Beianchi, that meant her character, who lives as a beggar, took on the persona of a stray, feral cat. She went so far as to study the cats staying at Cat’s Cradle.
“I’ve been incorporating and exaggerating some of their movements and altering them so they seem human,” Beianchi said.
But, despite the challenges that such a show presents, the experience will be a good one, Neal said.
“It’s been a wonderful treat working on a show that’s so complex,” he said. “Sweeney has so many shifting moods and interesting characteristics to it that it’s very intriguing to try to get to play him. Those are the best kind of characters for actors to play.”
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