Chosen Musical: Sweeney Todd
Origin of the Play
The musical of Sweeney Todd has stemmed from a long source of previous works of fiction based around the main character's story (more information about those later). The musical itself, however, was first performed in Broadway in 1979, and had over 500 performances in its one year and 3 months of being open to the public, and did very well after winning 8 Tony Awards. Since then, it has been performed numerous times in West End, Broadway and even further to locations like South Africa (2015).
However, when looking at the real origin of Sweeney Todd, the tale of the murderous barber first originated from a fictional "penny dreadful" serial called The String of Pearls. The plot of The String of Pearls revolves around the character Sweeney Todd, with strong differences to the adaptation I will be performing. In it, Sweeney Todd is similar to the modern adaptation as he is a barber who kills his clients and uses a specially designed barbers chair that allows him to effortlessly transport the corpses through a series of chutes to the bottom of St. Dunstan's church, where his friend, Mrs Lovett turns them into meat pies for her shop. What is different however is the penny dreadful series revolves primarily around a Lieutenant Thornhill, who is labelled disappearing after entering Todd's shop, causing a giant investigation that begins Todd's and Lovett's downfall.
Key Context To Infer From This
Penny Dreadful - It is vital to comment on the fact that the serial series Sweeney Todd is first introduced to an audience fits into the literary genre of Penny Dreadfuls. Contextually, Penny Dreadfuls were cheap yet popular literature, typically printed on inexpensive wood pulp paper and would often be released one chapter at a time, most often weekly. They were exclusive to the Victorian Era and were popular amongst young working-class men as the chapters were sold only for a penny. Additionally, Penny Dreadfuls like The String of Pearls as a genre were frequently gothic as a genre and were not afraid to explore distressing themes like murder, gore, and revenge.
How This Will Be Used In Developing My Role
The context of Penny Dreadfuls can be transferred in the genuinity of my role, in regards to how the genre is commonly stereotyped as being gory and murderous. Hence, the fact that The String of Pearls is enforcing this stereotype can help me as it allows me to understand the violent, unapologetic nature of Sweeney Todd as Penny Dreadfuls are unapologetically Gothic, and knowing that the character's intended literary purpose is to shock and thrill can help me in my presentation of Sweeney Todd as a character as he is meant to scare the audience deliberately and so I will use a deliberately disturbing aesthetic with his characterisation, being unapologetic about his taboo nature, as the original author intended.
Setting
Sweeney Todd is set in Victorian London, in particular, the year 1846. In addition, the play is primarily set on Fleet Street in London, where both Todd's barber shop and Lovett's pie shop is based.
Key Context To Infer From This
Victorian London - A society that is recognised by the vast majority, and has been explored and represented in various works of literature from the era to help us understand the society.
Examples include:
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Hard Times - Charles Dickens
The Victorian society itself was a complex one with many layers, but generally, when people think of the Victorian society, they think of the corruption, poverty and strongly classist ideologies. The classism that would result in loads of working-class members living on streets and having a high death rate, alongside the power aristocratic Victorians possessed, are two juxtaposing issues that Sweeney Todd explores.
The aforementioned point is explored in Sweeney Todd's song "Epiphany", with the lyrics "Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief. For the rest of us, death will be a relief.". Here, he is talking about his desire to kill is validated by how the aristocratic were famous for being cruel towards the working class, and would often lie and commit crimes to upkeep their wealth and reputation, and how the working class should die also as they are so miserable with the state of their lives, that killing them will be him relieving them of their pain.
How This Will Be Used in Developing My Role
Todd's awareness of the corruption and cruelty of the society he lives in is essential in my performance of him in my extract, as he uses said corruption to justify his murderous behaviours. The fact that he argues this is verification to Mrs Lovett's raises the issue of Todd addressing the real villain: Victorian society. It was the power the evil Judge Turpin had as a result of him belonging to the aristocratic class that caused him to lose his family, and so in my performance, I must demonstrate to the audience that while Todd is evil, he is not the villain. I must also make the audience understand the horrors of Victorian London, so they view Todd as a character to empathise with, rather than despise, which is essential as his taboo habits stem from pain, not anger.
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