For some reason that I’m unable to fathom, Sweeney Todd is a popular school production here. Perhaps there’s something in the collective Kiwi psyche that leans towards the macabre, especially if it’s coupled with humour. Even Peter Jackson cut his cinematic skills in movies such as Brain Dead, Bad Taste, and The Frighteners before rising to world game with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Any way, back to the school production at Saint Kentigern College. It seems that to make the show as realistic as possible, they really did cut the throats of two performers. Has a public performance of Sweeney Todd gone to such levels of realism anywhere else in the world? I can only commend the director and actors for their dedication to their art.
For full details of this brave venture into bringing realism in stage plays to a new level, see this New Zealand Herald article.
Another Spectrum 