Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 11 - 03/03/17 ADD VIDEO

Today we blocked everything for the quirky number, “By The Sea”. With this song we wanted to create an illusion, much like in The Epiphany, to show that this clearly isn’t reality. We experimented with ways we could show this but we wanted to do something different compared to cast members walking in and out of the scene which would simply be copying The Epiphany. We thought about using a sheet like the boat in the opening prologue but we felt that it wouldn’t work unless we had plenty of things to do with it. So we used one we already have and experimented with it to see what we could create with just one sheet. From this we came up with:

A swing:

A hammock:

Wedding canopy:

And water (obviously the sheet would have to be blue): 

Below is the outline of how the scene will go:

Lorna and Rob start upstairs in the barber shop and the song starts and Mrs Lovett is all over Todd. On, “Where I’d really like to go,” Ollie and I enter from the side and hold open a blue sheet facing the audience and James is walking behind it but only his upper body is visible and he is pretending to swim. Mrs Lovett and Todd also start walking down into what was once their pie shop.

On “By the sea, Mr Todd, that’s the life I covet”, Ollie and I lay the sheet on the floor and wave it around like it’s a river and James is splashing about it in childlike. Lorna then proceeds to join him and on Rob’s line, “Anything you say,” he steps into the river begrudgingly and has a small splash.

On, “Think how snug it’ll be…” the family step off of the sheet and Ollie and I lift it up and lay it on the stage block behind us which was a table in the pie shop before. By the line, “we’ll have chums over every Friday,” the family and Ollie and I are gathered around the table, which has the sheet as a homely tablecloth.

For the next verse, Ollie and I lift up the sheet and hold it over our shoulders as a swing again and Lorna pushes an unenthusiastic Rob as she sings about seagulls. On, “But a seaside wedding,” Rob hops down and Ollie and I hold the sheet above them as a wedding canopy and they stand as they are ready to be wed.

Below is a video of the final scene: