Sweeney Todd - Simmering tension keeps audience on edge.
Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls presented by Tread The Boards at The Attic Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 18 October until 7 November 2026. Director: John-Robert Partridge.
Review by Charles Essex.
Most people are aware of the cliché ‘Sweeney Todd the demon barber’, but often have little knowledge of the story beyond that. This Tread the Boards (TTB) production in the intimate setting of The Attic Theatre was ideal for getting the audience within touching distance of this tense thriller, with the ever-present threat of murder most foul and abusive behaviour. Unusually, there was a false wall, which foreshortened the depth of the stage even more but was used to great effect with a door allowing the actors to exit centre stage rather than just stage right or left.
Sweeney (Jon Kerr) recruited a new assistant Tobias (Matt Rousseau) and treated him with Dickensian harshness and threats. Jon was superb as the psychopathic Sweeney, with an ominous stillness as he fixed audience members with a prolonged stare. When Tobias was out of the shop on an errand, Sweeney murdered wealthy customers and his barber’s chair cleverly despatched them from a high point stage left down a slide, for his neighbour and accomplice Mrs Lovett (Millicent Golightly) to use the flesh in her famous meat pies. Millicent portrayed Mrs Lovett as a ruthless businesswoman, charming with customers but a severe employer, but her desire to stop and spend the profits on a luxurious lifestyle started to cause a rift with Sweeney.
Sweeney’s homicidal scheme started to unravel when he chose the wrong victim, the carrier of the pearls, as a friend Colonel Jeffrey (Ray Murphy) started a dogged investigation into his disappearance. Ray expressed Jeffrey’s bewilderment yet determination to find the truth about his friend’s fate. Joanna (Ellen Davies), for whom the pearls were meant as a gift, and her friend Arabella (Nicola Rainford) were an astonishing paradox to the murderous mayhem as a pair of ingenues almost taken from a Jane Austen novel, who help in the investigation. Nicola also took other parts and had an extraordinarily piercing gaze in her role as Edith, servant to Mrs Lovett. Rob Keeves took several roles, switching competently between the sadistic asylum director, the oleaginous pawn broker and the creepy doctor.
Matt depicted Tobias’ timidity but realising Sweeney’s deadly actions, he frantically desired to expose the truth. Incarcerated in an asylum for insanity for claiming Sweeney was a murderer, Matt’s portrayal of Tobias’ terror at his predicament was a superb contrast to his earlier demeanour.
There was a very clever end to the first act as the cast, armed with sharp knives, assembled facing the audience and the lights went out…and then the second act started in darkness with bedlam in the asylum, both of which achieved the desired effects on the audience. Once again TTB give terrific value for money and demonstrated the power of top-quality theatre to engage audiences and draw them into another time and place.
Age recommendation 12+
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