It’s pie time!
Susie Dumbreck on directing Sweeney Todd, training with Sondheim and much more…
This week local amateur company Blackout Productions step back into the musical theatre genre as they take on the mighty Steven Sondheim and his Penny Dreadful musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
The company already has some formidable productions under its belt, with a wide range of genres from its debut outing of The 25th Putnam County Spelling Bee in 2013, David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof in 2015, Steel Magnolias in 2018 and a revival of Scottish musical Macpherson’s Rant at the Fringe the following year – and most recently a production of Calendar Girls in 2022.
Blackout Productions’ Sweeney Todd in rehearsal. Pic: Alex Robson.
Now, however, it is to Sondheim that they look, with four nights and a matinee of Sweeney Todd at the Church Hill Theatre, under the direction of Susie Dumbreck.
Æ took the opportunity to ask Susie about her background in singing Sondheim, having heard her give a particularly stunning Sondheim medley at a fundraiser for Lupus, The Butterfly and the Wolf, back in 2013.
First, however, we asked what drew her to direct Sweeney Todd in particular?
“As an audience member, I want to be swept up and moved along through a story where I become invested in the characters and where the music viscerally affects me,” she says. “I believe that Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd does this with its wonderful rich musical landscape and where the characters are layered, flawed and have an innate belief and truth that drives them to their fates.
theatrical devices
“I am also intrigued by where musicals have evolved from in theatre history and Sweeney Todd has so many theatrical devices from Greek Chorus to Victorian Melodrama.
“Sweeney’s ‘Greek Chorus’ element is used throughout the show and thus it’s a perfect opportunity to have a real ensemble telling of the story. Every character – principal and ensemble in the piece serves the journey – this is intriguing to play with as a director and I find engages the acting company to bring an amazing collective energy.
“Blackout are a company who aim to work as a strong collective and want that energy in their productions. So, it was an easy decision to join them to bring their/my version of Sweeney to life in Edinburgh.”
Susie Dumbreck (in pink) in rehearsal with the cast of Blackout Productions’ Sweeney Todd. Pic: Alex Robson.
Having such a strong memory of Susie’s medley for Sarah Heaney’s The Butterfly and the Wolf, 11 years ago, she clearly has the measure of Sondheim’s music. How does that translate into directing a piece of his musical theatre?
“Thank you for your lovely thoughts on Butterfly and Wolf – interestingly, I have sadly lost hearing since then and my singing has taken a back seat,” she says.
“However with Sondheim, I never lose the ‘feeling’ and internal sound of his work and the pieces I did play and sing in my younger days still have such a strong muscle memory in my being. I sometimes wish I was a conductor/MD – because the flow of Sweeney is so captivating!”
Baker’s Wife
“I was first introduced to Sondheim’s musicals by a friend in 1990 and I remember listening to Into the Woods on repeat when that album came out,” she continues. “I worked as an ASM on the National Student Theatre Company EdFringe production of Sweeney in 1991 and was so taken by the show, I bought all the Sondheim CDs that I could get my hands on.
“I was the first to play the Baker’s Wife in the Scottish premiere of Into the Woods for the then Quinquereme Productions in EdFringe 1992 and Sondheim material became part of my rep from that point on.
Blackout Productions’ Sweeney Todd in rehearsal. Pic: Alex Robson.
“Sondheim wrote for singer/actors – the vocal range and flow sits so well on the musical line it makes it easy to make sense of the text and the intentions of the character. This makes the work easier to direct as it is driven from character.”
Having heard that Susie trained with Sondheim at one point, we wondered how that came about?
“In 1990 a group of MDs and writers set up Mercury Workshop as they studied with Sondheim, who was the Cameron Mackintosh Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University. In 1992 they set up Mercury Musical Developments (MMD).
“When The Royal Academy of Music began its first Postgraduate in Musical Theatre in 1994, I was one of the first student group. We regularly worked with MMD on new works and performed their work in concert. So, we were first choice of students to sing when MMD did a full Masterclass session with Sondheim in London in 1995.
coached
“I was lucky enough to be coached by him on the song Sunday in the Park with George. It was a wonderful experience and he was so very generous to us as young performers. He was very exacting, but explaining so much in terms of the ‘why’ of something he’d written and as it was also for the writers/musical directors – we were given such an insight into all aspects from word choice to scoring.
We were lucky to have exclusive access at that time.
Blackout Productions’ Sweeney Todd in rehearsal. Pic: Alex Robson.
And finally, we have seen several Sweeney Todds in Edinburgh – including a quite memorable one which integrated signing into the performance. What is going to set this one apart? And does it have anything particular to say to us now, in 2024?
“I always approach a script with the view of an audience experience and how do I best tell this story with the company of performers that I have. I also love research. As I said, I’m intrigued by the theatrical devices used in this Sondheim/Bond version of the story.
“I went down a rabbit hole of discovery of how the story started in print form, who it was attributed to (James Malcolm Rymer) in the printed versions and where it was first told in a live theatrical setting.
“This took me to old musical halls of London and to the first telling of Sweeney Todd and The String of Pearls which appeared in theatre form in the then Britannia Musical Hall in Hoxton in 1847 (prior to it being rebuilt into a 3 tier well recognised theatre house).
factories and slums
“Rymer himself had an intriguing life and story and this took me to look at areas of London he’d lived and the factories and slums he was originally a part of (I’ve used Jack London and Henry Mayhew as source material in the past and they came in handy with this).
“The Music Hall art form sadly declined over time and so many of the large houses (the Britannia included) went to ruin or were knocked down. Those that survived – Wiltons, Hoxton Hall and the grander ones build later – The Palace, The Palladium etc, all have intriguing energy and many say they are ‘haunted’.
“So, my take on Sweeney brings us into this context – if the ghosts of a derelict Music Hall were to given breath to tell this story again, how would they do so? Who might be the characters that would do so and what props or relics left gathering dust might help with telling that story. We do ask the audience to suspend belief and come on that journey with us.
melodramatic and dramatised
“In terms of how the story will read to a 2024 audience – I hope they can draw their own conclusions to what resonates from Sondheim’s lyrics and Bond’s book.
“At the heart we are telling a melodramatic and dramatised ‘yarn’ that intrigued the Penny Dreadful readers and theatre going public in its day. The ethical and moral dilemmas of power, greed, revenge, lust and manipulation balancing with love, joy, hope and want for something of light, all transcend time.”
Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street plays the Church Hill Theatre, Wednesday 9 – Saturday 12 October 2024.
Listing
Sweeney Todd
Church Hill Theatre, 33 Morningside Road, EH10 4DR.
Wed 9 – Sat 12 October 2024.
Evenings: 7.30pm, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Blackout Productions’ Sweeney Todd in rehearsal. Pic: Alex Robson.
ENDS
