Sweeney Todd

Describe a performance that you have seen in which you were moved by a vivid scenic image. What elements of the image make it memorable for you? How did they enhance the meaning of the play (or film) for you? Do you think the image fit the director's interpretation of the play (or film)? How did it help convey the mood?

Sweeney Todd
This performance was like none other. Creepy, unsettling, yet entertaining. Everyone involved in the play was both an actor and a musician. Instead of using the whole stage for the performance, they had assembled an L shaped wooden deck with a wooden background. Props lined the walls and helped to create the scene. Only the space of the L (as opposed to the rest of the stage) was being used. Otherwise the free space of the stage was empty. When characters had their turn to enter in to the scene, they would set down their instruments and stand up to join the action (for their chairs were already on stage).

The colors of the characters and the barber shop were darker, gloomier, and more unsettling than I had experienced before. At first I thought that I had walked into a freak show, rather a horror movie. The music was creepy, and the performance was about death. Each of these characteristics helped to enhance the show by creating an atmosphere and style that would unnerve the audience. The audience was held onto the performance by the uneasy tone set by the scene.

This feel of an old creepy barber shop was exactly what the director wanted the audience to feel. This performance was not meant to make the audience fill with love, instead was supposed to fill them with suspense. I think the director got exactly what he wanted.