Sixth Form Drama students enjoyed an evening of delight, shock, laughter and horror at the Oxford Playhouse on Thursday 3rd February. The group attended the Music Theatre international’s production of the original Broadway show, this time performed by University of Oxford students. “It was traumatic – in a fun way!” laughed Bernadette.
Subtitled ‘The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – A Musical Thriller’ the plot tells “the infamous tale of the razor-swinging barber and his pie shop-owning partner-in-crime, Mrs Lovett”. Assistant Head of Drama, Damon Young, commented, “This production has been chosen to further student learning in A Level Drama & Theatre Studies and in IB Theatre. This is a great opportunity for students to write about a production and be inspired by excellent work. Sweeney Todd is a seminal work that revolutionised musical theatre in terms of subject matter, themes, staging and use of music.”
Lotte enthused, “I thought the play was interesting to watch and worth the experiment. Since I had watched the play already I had the opportunity to concentrate on details. Also, I started to compare some techniques from the plays and that helped me for my understanding of the play that we are creating right now. We could see how much they had involved physical movement which is a big part of our project right now. I think there are a lot of passive influences that I will benefit from.”
Eddie added “I loved the complexity of the music.” whilst Sam noted “Really excellent performances from the leads. Mrs Lovett was exceptional.”
“I felt the trip helped to refresh my knowledge on what to look out for when reviewing theatre as well as giving me good comparison for other productions of the same play.” said Patrick, “It also provided some inspiration when it comes to devising, as we noticed some techniques that we thought might work well for our devised work.”
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