Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street May 10 – June 7, 2020 Edu TABLE of CONTENTS
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A NOISE WITHIN’S 2019-2020 REPERTORY THEATRE SEASON AUDIENCE GUIDE Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street May 10 – June 7, 2020 Edu TABLE OF CONTENTS Character Map . 3 Synopsis . 4 About the Author: George Dibdin Pitt . 5 About the Adaptors: Christopher Bond, Hugh Wheeler, and Stephen Sondheim . 7 History of Sweeney Todd: A Timeline . 9 Change in the Air: The Transition from the Industrial Revolution to the Victorian Era . 10 Pretty Women: The Role of Women in 19th Century England . 11 The Great Divide: Social Inequality in Industrial and Victorian England . 14 Melodrama and Musicals . 15 The Evolution of the Sweeney Todd Story from Melodrama to Musical . 17 Themes . 18 Revenge . 18 Love and Desire . 18 Freedom and Captivity . 19 Madness . 19 Ken Booth Lighting Designer . 20 Additional Resources . 21 A NOISE WITHIN’S EDUCATION PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY: Ann Peppers Foundation The Green Foundation Capital Group Companies Kenneth T . and Michael J . Connell Foundation Eileen L . Norris Foundation The Dick and Sally Roberts Ralph M . Parsons Foundation Coyote Foundation Steinmetz Foundation The Jewish Community Dwight Stuart Youth Fund Foundation 3 A NOISE WITHIN 2019/20 REPERTORY SEASON | Spring 2020 Study Guide Sweeney Todd CHARACTER MAP Mrs. Lovett The owner of a struggling meat pie shop . She knew Sweeney Todd before he was sent to Australia, and she helps him set up a barbershop when he returns to London . Sweeney Todd/Benjamin Barker An English barber formerly known Beggar Woman/Lucy Barker as Benjamin Barker . After spending A woman who has gone mad over 15 years wrongfully incarcerated in time . It is later revealed that the Australia, he has returned to London Beggar Woman is actually Lucy Barker, to seek revenge for the injustice to Benjamin Barker’s wife . which he was subjected . Judge Turpin Anthony Hope Johanna A corrupt judge who was in love with A sailor who rescues Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd and Lucy Barker’s Lucy Barker, Sweeney Todd’s wife . He from Australia and sails with him daughter . She is now Judge Turpin’s orchestrated a plan to wrongfully send back to London . He falls in love with ward, and against Judge Turpin’s Benjamin Barker to prison in Australia Johanna . wishes, she falls in love with Anthony so that he could marry Lucy . For the Hope . past 15 years, he has been Johanna’s guardian . Adolfo Pirelli Tobias Ragg Jonas Fogg The Beadle An Irishman who has Pirelli’s assistant . He later The owner of a private A corrupt public official, he developed the public persona becomes Mrs . Lovett’s asylum . works closely with Judge of a flashy Italian barber and assistant in the pie shop . Turpin . dentist . He used to work for Benjamin Barker . 4 A NOISE WITHIN 2019/20 REPERTORY SEASON | Spring 2020 Study Guide Sweeney Todd SYNOPSIS After spending 15 years wrongfully incarcerated in the The scene shifts to Judge Turpin . Walking home from British penal colony of Australia, Benjamin Barker, now court with the Beadle, he reveals that he intends to marry known as Sweeney Todd, is finally returning to London . Johanna . However, he describes to the Beadle that when He is travelling with Anthony Hope, a young sailor . The he made his marriage proposal to Johanna, she seemed two arrive in the city and are immediately confronted by hesitant at the idea . The Beadle suggests to Turpin that a beggar woman asking for money . When she approaches he visit Sweeney Todd, as a good shave might make Todd, she thinks she recognizes him . However, Todd Johanna more interested in marrying Turpin . quickly shoos her away . In order to cover-up the murder of Pirelli, Todd and Mrs . Todd makes his way down Fleet Street to a struggling Lovett exact a plan . They decide to bake Pirelli’s body meat pie shop operated by Mrs . Lovett . Mrs . Lovett and the bodies of future barbershop customers into describes how she has a room for rent above her shop Mrs . Lovett’s meat pies—after all, meat is expensive, that no one wants to lease because of the room’s and Todd, angry with all of humanity, has no qualms history—there was a barber who ran his business out of continuing to kill his patrons . the room, Mrs . Lovett tells Todd . The barber had a wife With the new meat pie recipe and a flood of patrons and a young daughter . However, Judge Turpin was in at Todd’s barbershop, Mrs . Lovett’s pie shop becomes love with the barber’s wife . Turpin had the barber sent incredibly popular . She even takes on Tobias to be her to prison in Australia under false charges in order to assistant . However, Tobias soon grows suspicious of give himself an opportunity to woo the barber’s wife . Todd . Nervous about Tobias’ suspicions, Mrs . Lovett After the barber was sent away, Judge Turpin invited the locks Tobias in the bakehouse . While Tobias is in the barber’s wife to a masked ball, where he violated her . bakehouse, the Beadle arrives at the shop, and Todd As she tells the story of the room’s former tenants, Mrs . offers him a shave . During the shave, Todd slits the Lovett realizes that Todd is actually Benjamin Barker—the Beadle’s throat and sends his body down a chute that barber from the tale . Mrs . Lovett lets Todd know that not leads directly to the bakehouse . Tobias, still in the long after the incident at the masked ball, Lucy, Todd’s bakehouse, sees the body and panics . wife, drank arsenic and died . After Lucy’s death, Judge Turpin adopted Johanna, Todd’s daughter, and has since Before Todd addresses Tobias, Anthony and Johanna been raising her as his ward . Hearing this, Todd vows to appear—they are on the run and on their way to elope . exact revenge on Turpin and his assistant, the Beadle, Anthony leaves Johanna in the barbershop while he goes for the wrongs they have committed against him and his to secure a coach to take them out of the city . Johanna, family . Mrs . Lovett fetches Todd’s old razors and says that unsettled by the barbershop, hides in a trunk while Todd he can set up a business in the room above her pie shop . is out of the room . Not long after she does, the Beggar Woman wanders into the shop . Frustrated, Todd slits the Later, in the marketplace, hoping to attract business to Beggar Woman’s throat and sends her body down the his barbershop, Todd challenges Pirelli, a flashy Italian chute . As soon as the woman’s body is gone, the Judge barber, to a shaving contest . It quickly becomes apparent enters . Todd offers the Judge a shave, and finally slits his that Todd is the better barber . The Beadle, an onlooker throat and sends him down the chute as well . Horrified, of the action and judge of the contest, is impressed with Johanna runs out of the room . Todd’s skill and promises to pay Todd a visit for a shave . This promise excites Todd—it presents an opportunity to Todd, now able to deal with Tobias, goes to the take revenge . bakehouse . However, when he is there, he gets a closer look at the Beggar Woman he killed only to realize that While Todd anxiously awaits the Beadle’s visit, Anthony she is actually Lucy Barker, his wife . Todd realizes that arrives to tell Todd that he has fallen in love with Turpin’s Mrs . Lovett lied to him about his wife’s death . Out of ward and plans to steal her away—completely unaware grief and anger, Todd kills Mrs . Lovett, pushing her into that the judge’s ward is Todd’s daughter . Not long after the oven . Tobias, witness to all this, finds one of Todd’s Anthony leaves, Pirelli and his assistant, Tobias, appear . razors and slits Todd’s throat with it, ending the cycle of Pirelli reveals that he knows Todd’s true identity—he Sweeney Todd’s revenge . ♦ worked for Todd before he was sent to prison . Pirelli has come to blackmail Todd into working for him . However, before Pirelli’s blackmail plan can come into effect, Todd kills him . 5 A NOISE WITHIN 2019/20 REPERTORY SEASON | Spring 2020 Study Guide Sweeney Todd ABOUT THE AUTHOR: GEORGE DIBDIN PITT George Dibdin Pitt was born on March 30, 1795 as George Cecil Pitt in northwest England to George Cecil Pitt senior and Sophia Pyne . He came from a well-known theatrical family, going all the way back to his great- grandmother, Ann Pitt, who was known for her numerous performances in Covent Garden . In 1801, the Pitt family moved to London, where George Cecil Pitt senior performed as a musician in Covent Garden and Sophia acted at the Haymarket . While there is no record of George Cecil Pitt junior attending school, he was quite well read—his plays are full of allusions to other works of literature and demonstrate a significant knowledge of history and geography . When he was 15 years old, Pitt’s uncle, Tom Dibdin, began to help Pitt land jobs as an actor at a regional theater company in Exeter . For reasons that are not entirely clear, Pitt changed his middle name from “Cecil” to “Dibdin” around this time—perhaps in gratitude to his uncle, perhaps to set himself apart from his father, or perhaps to capitalize on the Dibdin name which was a name much more well-known at the time . Eventually, Pitt began to perform at Tom Dibdin’s own theater company in Surrey, a county which borders the Greater London area .