Sweeney Todd: Theater Arts at Caltech

TACIT presents Christopher Bond's Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Ramo Auditorium. Performances are Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from October 31 through November 16.

Up until Christopher Bond's 1973 retelling of the story, Sweeney Todd was a cartoonish, outrageous monster, slashing his way through customers with the exclamation "I'll Polish Him Off!"....

It was Christopher Bond who added another dimension to the Sweeney character and gave him a dose of humanity. The barber's evil plot made more sense when seen as a twisted revenge fantasy being perpetrated against the corrupt society that destroyed his family and deprived him of his freedom. The cruel irony he faces as he holds the beggar woman at the end of the play causes Sweeney to tearfully repent and offers the character some redemption. Bond shows us that he is a madman, but he is human after all.

- from the PBS site

(Note that this play, unlike the Sondheim work based on it, is not a musical.)

Produced by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

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