Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Scenic Design by Irena Hadzi Dordevic

Costume Design by Natalia Votinova

Lighting Design by Jackie Fox

Scenic Design Concept

For our team, Sweeney Todd tells a story about the seductive nature of capitalism. People are lured into the system based on empty promises of success and status but end up devoid of empathy, love, and compassion. The structure of capitalism is one that slowly corrupts until our primary focus is on our own advancement as opposed to the overall good.

Set in a time of the beginning of the industrial revolution, historically London was perceived by many as a city of promises, offering opportunities for material advancement and for what was believed to be a better life. People were flooding in the city, looking for the opportunity to work only to find themselves trapped in the cyclical capitalistic system barely surviving. Inspired by the deceptive attractiveness of products and twisted values of society, our London is represented with the structure of an elevator, part of the first amusement park of the time, Regents Park in London. Called also conveniently a London's Colosseum this space transforms into an attractive world of the game, eat or be eaten, capitalism as cannibalism. An object that becomes a living trap, a beautiful golden structure inside of a rough concrete container luring from the background. The moment when we turn the structure we acknowledge a different reality, the illusion is broken and we discover an intricately structured prison we can not escape from.