University of Virginia Library

Motive In Madness

Yet I think there was a motive
in the Players' madness. They must
have recognized how bad the play is
and approached it with the
knowledge that a contemporary
audience could not view and accept
the play as anything other than a
parody of its genre. Perhaps it
could be fun. Perhaps the audience
would even get in the spirit of
things and actually cheer the hero
and boo the villain. Perhaps some
members of the audience would go
so far as to throw things at the
actors on stage.

Well, on Monday night the
audience did cheer the archetypal
stalwart hero, they did hiss at the
archetypal murderous villain, and,
yes - thanks to my colleague Paul
Chaplin, who came armed with two
huge bags of peanuts - they did
occasionally throw small projectiles
at Sweeney Todd. While this did
enhance the evening considerably,
it was unfortunately, not quite
enough to compensate for the
weaknesses in the play (even when
taken lightly) and the general
unevenness of the production
which director Arthur Greene has
mounted.