Sweeney Todd

Sondheim’s hit musical is staged by Barrie Kosky as a ‘children’s theatre nightmare collage’, blending revulsion and comedy with a fascination for horror. He mercilessly digs into the question of what humans are capable of when they follow the logic of revenge to the bitter end.

The barber Benjamin Barker is unjustly sentenced to a long prison term by Judge Turpin, who has his eye on Barker’s wife. Years later, Barker returns with only one thing on his mind: revenge. His wife has supposedly killed herself, according to the burnt-out but business-savvy baker of meat pies, Mrs Lovett. And so Benjamin Barker, alias Sweeney Todd, launches not only a grisly campaign of revenge but also, with his accomplice Mrs Lovett, a thriving joint venture in the meat-pie business.