{"id":30394,"date":"2018-10-05T03:55:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T10:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=30394"},"modified":"2018-10-03T11:23:43","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T18:23:43","slug":"experience-sweeneys-revenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/10\/05\/experience-sweeneys-revenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Experience Sweeney\u2019s revenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colleen Winton as Mrs. Lovett and Warren Kimmel as Sweeney Todd in Snapshots Collective\u2019s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street<\/em>, which runs Oct. 10-31. (photo by Nicol Spinola)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo seek revenge may lead to hell, but everyone does it, if seldom as well as Sweeney,\u201d said Stephen Aberle, quoting from the finale of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street<\/em>. Aberle plays Judge Turpin in the Snapshots Collective production of the musical, which will take place at Mrs. Lovett\u2019s Pie Shop, or at least a facsimile of it, at 348 Water St., in Gastown, Oct. 10-31. Most shows are already sold out.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the power of the piece,\u201d explained Aberle, whose character sets Sweeney on his murderous path, \u201cis that we can identify with all of the characters, see their strengths and their flaws, and observe how much we share with them. That\u2019s what makes it troubling, that irresistible doubt: would I do anything differently?\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hope most people would, as Sweeney Todd slits quite a few throats in his barber\u2019s chair \u2013 providing the main ingredient for Mrs. Lovett\u2019s pies \u2013 before getting to the object of his revenge, Judge Turpin, who abused Sweeney\u2019s wife and exiled Sweeney for a crime Sweeney didn\u2019t commit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we decided on doing Sweeney Todd<\/em>,\u201d director Chris Adams and choreographer Nicol Spinola told the Independent<\/em> in an email interview, \u201cwe knew we wanted Warren Kimmel as Sweeney, so we approached him first to see if he would be interested in playing the title character. He was on board almost immediately and we started moving forward to cast the rest of the show. We next approached Colleen Winton for the role of Mrs. Lovett and held auditions for the rest of the cast. We weren\u2019t shy in letting auditioning actors know that our show was going to be different and that seemed to excite them. We were thrilled with the turnout and were able to cast the show exactly how we saw it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the intimate audience \u2013 theatre capacity is about 56 \u2013 will be right in the midst of it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show is staged around the entire venue with some seats being directly in the action,\u201d said Adams and Spinola, who are also co-producers of the show, with Ron Stuart, Wendy Bross Stuart and Kat Palmer. \u201cThere will be interactive moments between the actors and the audience, although there is no audience participation required. Sometimes the action will take place right in front of you and other times the action will be across the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel looks absolutely terrifying in the production\u2019s 44-second teaser.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always more fun, interesting, to play dark or evil characters than good ones and, for the most part, I am cast as good guys rather than bad guys so this is fun from that point of view,\u201d said Kimmel of playing the title character in the musical, composed by Stephen Sondheim, with book by Hugh Wheeler. \u201cAlso, Sweeney Todd is probably one of the most challenging pieces in the musical canon to perform, so that makes it a stimulating and scary experience as well, which is, I suppose, fun in a twisted fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a tremendously important story for our time,\u201d said Aberle, \u201ca time when the power structures that reinforce men\u2019s privilege and women\u2019s presumed subservience (as well as racialized, class-based and other power imbalances) are being challenged by some; desperately defended by others. We read about Judge Turpin analogues just about every day in the news. I think it\u2019s particularly important for those of us who possess power to check in with a story like this and consider our own exercise of that power. To what extent am I being a self-serving brute in this situation? Are there ways I might reduce that extent? The play, it seems to me, asks questions like those pretty insistently.\u201d<\/p>\n

About how he has chosen to portray Judge Turpin, Aberle said, \u201cI\u2019m looking for him the way I generally look for a character: by trying to figure out what he wants in the context of the given circumstances. That context, for a judge in mid-19th-century England, was power, privilege and prestige.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that makes Judge Turpin interesting, to me, is that he\u2019s not merely a psychopath or even a simple, spoiled narcissist: he tries to do \u2018the right thing\u2019 according to social convention and struggles with his desires (though more because of deeply ingrained inner shame than because he really understands his own power to harm, or empathizes with his victims). There are some questions about the man that I\u2019m interested in exploring. What was his blue-sky vision of the perfect outcome when he set this engine of vengeance rolling, 15 years before the play begins? Why, especially given the power of his urges, has he gone through life so far without marrying? Why did he adopt a year-old infant as his ward? There are several plausible answers \u2013 and plausible combinations of multiple answers \u2013 for each of these, and I\u2019m enjoying playing with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echoing Kimmel\u2019s assessment of the music, Aberle added, \u201cAnd, really, let\u2019s face it. This is Sondheim at just about his Sondheimiest. If I can sing the material more or less in time and on pitch, I\u2019ll be pretty happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe music plays a central role in telling this story,\u201d Bross Stuart, the show\u2019s musical director, told the Independent<\/em>, \u201cand there is no one more brilliant than Stephen Sondheim to do this for us. Central to the core of this music is the Gregorian chant, \u2018Dies Irae<\/em>\u2019 (\u2018Day of Wrath,\u2019 \u2018Day of Judgment\u2019) theme, heard throughout this work. We hear fragments of this musical motif hidden everywhere. Extended, shortened, pulled out of shape, but it\u2019s there. We know it is the underpinning of Sweeney Todd\u2019s motivation. It helps us understand Mr. Todd\u2019s state of mind; and how revenge morphs into mental illness. When we are in the asylum, in Act 2, some of the \u2018patients\u2019 sing a demented version of \u2018Dies Irae.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother example is Sondheim\u2019s use of a repeated note for more than 100 bars. Why does he do this? It is Mr. Todd\u2019s obsession with murdering Judge Turpin. Even while the men are having a seemingly \u2018friendly\u2019 conversation, Todd is thinking along more sinister lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSweeney Todd, as far as we can tell, is a normal man with a wife he adores and a new young daughter,\u201d said Kimmel. \u201cWithout spoiling the plot altogether, life deals him a hand that most would find impossible to survive, let alone overcome, and so we have a perfect vehicle to allow us to ask what we<\/em> would do in his position and, if we are honest with ourselves and had the courage to follow through, we could easily imagine doing the same things he does.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Warren Kimmel looks terrifying in the production\u2019s promotional material. (photo by Nicol Spinola)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But, he added, \u201cIn the end, I think it is a very moral story and the final destination is morally inevitable \u2013 although we feel for him and want to see him get his revenge, and although he and Mrs. Lovett almost get away with what they have done, it cannot be…. The world is set to rights at the end of the piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could say that this is just a Victorian melodrama, a deliciously dark tale underlining all the Christian moral virtue of the period,\u201d he continued. \u201cHowever, like all great drama, I think the rules of the game are timeless \u2013 first dramatized in Greek times or even biblical times. You cannot fool God; you cannot escape the price that must be paid for transgressing His rules. There is a fashion now to believe that we have moved past these religious moral strictures and that religion has less to offer a modern society but, in the end, this is a morality tale that resonates with very deep archetypal themes. No matter how justified it may seem, revenge will lead nowhere good.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a performance point of view, it is always a gift to be able to play someone truly morally compromised and, in a broader sense, I think that is what the theatre is really for: to allow us to watch this story and go through all that life is able to throw at us, to imagine, to understand and even to justify truly extraordinary behaviour, and yet to laugh and cry and cringe and know that, at the end, the moral compass of the world is back on true north.\u201d<\/p>\n

An emotional connection to the show is one of the reasons that the Stuarts wanted to be involved in this production. \u201cWe saw the original Broadway production in New York City in 1979, with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou,\u201d said Ron Stuart. \u201cIt was brilliant and riveting and unique in the genre \u2013 like West Side Story<\/em> was 20 years before or Showboat<\/em> before that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur co-producers had the concept of an immersive version of the show at a Gastown venue around Halloween, and we thought it was an interesting way to present the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to funding, he said, \u201cwith projects of this scale, we are also very hands-on. Our director, choreographer, music director and assistant director are also producers. We readily share our contacts in a variety of specialities, such as costumes, set design, lighting, instrument rental, legal issues, marketing, etc. Moreover, we are a collective under Equity rules, so we all have \u2018skin in the game.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This is Palmer\u2019s first experience as a producer. \u201cIt has been nice to learn from professionals who have been through this journey from beginning to end,\u201d she told the Independent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Knowing that they wanted this show to be immersive, the venue not only had to work from a mechanical perspective, \u201cbut add to the experience,\u201d said Palmer, who is also in the ensemble.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a fun challenge,\u201d she said, \u201cto be switching between my assistant stage managing hat and my performer hat \u2013 \u2018this prop will need to be pre-set here, oh no, this is the lyric, this person has a quick change.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Palmer described the show as being very difficult technically, \u201cthere is not just Stage Left and Stage Right to worry about, there is a whole building.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is part of the attraction for Bross Stuart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, the musicians, are very close to the audience and to the actors,\u201d she explained. \u201cCommunication, page-turning, singing as you play \u2013 could be problematic. And the action is very immediate and very gripping. Very exciting!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favourite number in the show,\u201d said Palmer, \u201chas to be our opening number, \u2018The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.\u2019 Our amazing choreographer, Nicol Spinola, has created something so eerie, unique and unsettling. It immediately brings the audience right into this dark and thrilling world of 1840s London. Not only does it sound fantastic to have our entire cast of 17 singing Sondheim\u2019s challenging music, but it also sets the mood for the entire show. I get chills performing it and I am very confident the audience will have never experienced anything like it before.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information and tickets to Sweeney Todd<\/em>, visit sweeneytoddthemusical.ca<\/a>. And plan to have dinner at the venue before the show \u2013 pies, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur pies come fresh each day from the Pie Hole located on Fraser Street in Vancouver,\u201d said Adams and Spinola. \u201cWe are offering a traditional steak-and-stout meat pie, an aromatic Moroccan chickpea vegetarian pie and a delicious Thai coconut curry vegan pie. Pies can be added on when you are purchasing your tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colleen Winton as Mrs. Lovett and Warren Kimmel as Sweeney Todd in Snapshots Collective\u2019s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which runs Oct. 10-31. (photo by Nicol Spinola) \u201cTo seek revenge may lead to hell, but everyone does it, if seldom as well as Sweeney,\u201d said Stephen Aberle, quoting from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[8399,8398,4462,8397,7028,1555,8396,6208,1699,1719],"class_list":["post-30394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-halloween","tag-kat-palmer","tag-musical","tag-ron-stuart","tag-sondheim","tag-stephen-aberle","tag-sweeney-todd","tag-theatre","tag-warren-kimmel","tag-wendy-bross-stuart"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}