UK/USA - In a co-production with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, directed by Neil Armstrong, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd made his debut on the stage of the Royal Opera House in December last year. Finishing its run last week, it has had mixed fortunes, with the critics having given it a bashing on both sides of the Atlantic, firstly questioning whether Sweeney Todd is in fact an opera at all, and secondly whether it is appropriate for it to be gracing the stages of two of the mostly highly-revered opera houses in the world.

Critics aside, audiences were not deterred and the production played to packed houses for the majority of its run, with Brian Thompson's set design appearing to receive praise from all quarters. The play opens to a large cage, whose interior swiftly adapts to be a town square, a barber shop, a Victorian parlour or a lunatic asylum - and, when hung with sweeping curtains, becomes a shadow screen of nightmare visions of murder, rape and madness. Stage Technologies provided automation rental for both the Lyric in Chicago and the Royal Opera House productions. This is in conjunction with the Stage Technologies multi-user Nomads, which are already installed as part of the theatres' infrastructure.

(Lee Baldock)


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