FRINTON Summer Theatre's season continued this week with a truly magnificent production of Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Visceral and passionate in equal measure, this actor-musician production saw 10 immensely talented performers at the very top of their game.
For the first time in its history, Frinton Summer Theatre transformed the McGrigor Hall into a traverse space, with a central catwalk and audience seated on all sides, creating a mesmerising and utterly immersive theatrical experience.
Michael Robert-Lowe's Sweeney was both menacing and tender, perfectly capturing this tormented and dangerous character, with a voice quite literally to die for.
Alice Redmond brought brilliant comic timing and genuine warmth to Mrs Lovett as she cheerfully bashed away at her (human) pies.
Meanwhile, the young lovers Johanna and Anthony (Ayesha Patel and Edward Watchman) portrayed what can sometimes be an overly sentimental romance as a believable and heartfelt union of young love.
David Phipps-Davis was splendidly sinister as Judge Turpin, combining villainy with an opulent, operatic voice, while Rob Gathercole was a suitably oleaginous, accordion-playing Beadle Bamford.
Two show-stealing moments will stay with me for a very long time: the virtuosic flamboyance of Luke Farrugia as the sham barber Pirelli, and the heart-breaking duet between Mrs Lovett and Tobias (Joe Keenan), as the latter moved elegantly around the stage playing the cello whilst delivering one of the musical's most tender songs.
Clare Aster gave a moving performance as the pitiful Beggar Woman and, finally, but certainly not least, Abigail Rogers impressed in her flute-playing ensemble role whilst doubling as an unsettling and disturbing Mrs Fogg.
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Juliette Demoulin's highly effective set delivered a suitably demonic barber's chair that swiftly despatched its victims to the bakehouse below and featured a barber's pole that slowly filled with blood as the body count mounted.
Neil Gordon's pitch-perfect costumes beautifully evoked the dark Victorian world of the piece, while Neil Somerville's orchestrations were truly inspired, perfectly suited to this intimate and compelling piece of theatrical magic.
I understand that staging Sweeney Todd was on director Clive Brill's bucket list, and he has certainly delivered a unique and immersive production with stellar performances that will linger long in the memory.
