Outside Harrington’s Pie & Mash Shop
When: 21st October – 29th November 2014
Where: Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop, Tooting, London
£: Tickets cost £5 – £20
What is it?
London’s oldest pie and mash shop is to host an intimate staging of Sondheim’s most famous musical, Sweeney Todd.
In this staging of Sondheim’s musical thriller, audiences will congregate at Anton’s barber shop before being shown through to Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop, where the décor, little changed since it was opened in 1908, will provide the setting for Mrs Lovett’s infamous establishment.
Mrs Lovett will be played by Siobhan McCarthy, who was Olivier nominated as the original Donna in Mamma Mia!, and is also known for her role of Roisin Connor in ITV’s Bad Girls.
Harrington’s Pie & Mash Shop
Sweeney Todd will be directed by Bill Buckhurst, who recently co-directed the international touring production Globe to Globe Hamlet alongside Dominic Dromgoole. This is the fourth production Buckhurst has directed for Tooting Arts Club, following the Offie award-winning Barbarians in 2012 and A Midsummer Night’s Dream last summer.
Based on a Victorian horror story, Sweeney Todd is Sondheim’s most famous musical. The original 1979 production won a host of awards including both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards.
David Sydney Johnson, who has been working at Harrington’s for 46 years and is currently the sole pie maker, says “Harrington’s has been serving pies to the people of Tooting for over a hundred years, but this is the first time we’ve ever staged a theatre show. We’re really looking forward to being a pie shop by day and a theatre venue by night and excited to welcome customers old and new to enjoy the show (and of course our pies).”
Pie maker David in the kitchen
Rachel Edwards, Producer, Tooting Arts Club said “It has been a long-held dream to do Sweeney Todd at this venue, and I am so pleased that it has been made possible by the generosity of the owners of Harrington’s. The shop is steeped in history and character – and as a producer of site-specific theatre, I instinctively knew this was the ideal venue for Sweeney; it was a great relief that Harrington’s thought so too. This project sums up exactly what TAC is about – creating inventive work that is born out of exciting collaborations with people at the heart of the Tooting community. It will be – and already is – a remarkable adventure.”
Tooting Arts Club was established in 2010 to stage high quality professional productions in an area that lacks a permanent home for theatre. The company takes inspiration from the area, using local buildings to stage performances, drawing audiences from across London.
More info: www.tootingartsclub.co.uk