Here goes:
I saw this production in October in a preview performance, and went back the following 4 nights: That was 5 nights in a row!!
To quote Patti Lupone's statement about what she felt watching the OBC production for the first time - "I was gobsmacked".
I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and I felt I HAD to go back to try to fully understand/appreciate what was laid out before me to absorb on that first night. I had never experienced that phenomenon with any play/production I'd seen proir to this one. They demanded my attention and they got it. I've gone back sporadically since then, and am still trying to "solve" the many puzzles of the show created by John Doyle's constantly shape-shifting, unrelentingly creative direction - I never get bored with it.
Manoel's Toby is such so much fun to watch because it is so highly unusual in this age of A*D*D to see someone FOCUSING and CONCENTRATING on anything for such an exteneded period of time, much less 2 1/2 hours! He's always "in it", (thank you garden state!), and doesn't seem, even for a moment, to have the luxury of dropping out, (so goes the plight of the menatlly ill.)
I do believe/subscribe to the idea that the cast are other patients who are in the ward with him, who are there acting out the story as a form of art therapy. But that raises several questions, such as why, for instance, they are all in black and white costumes, and he is allowed by the staff to remain in his PJ's. I know that many psych hospitals take art therapy seriously and have patients at different sickness/function levels able to do different levels of theraputic exercises... who knows.
QUESTION: I often wonder who it was decided the audience is supposed to be. The actors have to talk to/sing to the audience quite a bit, (often times in lieu of looking at each other). It seems to me that we, the audience, are seen as a "character" - as other doctors, or outsiders, perhaps - not patients, but "well" people who are free to leave the asylum after the session/art therapy/demonstration is over - (operating rooms are sometimes called "theaters", right? And professionals are sometimes allowed to observe from above in order to LEARN.) Perhaps the patients are really trying to get their message across to those who may not normally understand or look at such grim stories and situations. It certainly seems that that is what the actors on stage are trying to do!
LEARNING: I feel like I learn so much watching this production - it really makes me wonder about humanity, about theater, about staging, about design and color, about music composition, about musical prowess, about grief/loss/death, about love, about illness, etc. I've read that Sondheim has said that he was merely trying to write a show that would scare people, but, like with all his work, there appears to be much more going on than that.
I HEART SWEENEY TODD and thank you John Doyle, Stephen Sondheim and all involved for making this production a reality.
Super great work!!!
Updated On: 2/10/06 at 09:16 PM
