Set Model
2011
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Anthony Ward is one of the leading stage designers of his generation. His work includes theatre, opera and ballet and has long associations with directors such as Phyllida Lloyd, Adrian Noble, and Richard Eyre. The Chichester Festival Theatre production of Sweeney Todd starred Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, and its success guaranteed a transfer into London’s Adelphi Theatre in 2012. The production ran for six months and garnered three Olivier Awards: for Best Musical revival and for Ball and Staunton in the Best Actor and Actress categories.
Ward’s set design comprises of a post-industrial Victorian factory, complete with rusting ladders and walkways. In the centre of the stage, is the ubiquitous barber and pie shop, with the red barber’s chair on top, from which Sweeney’s victims descend before being baked in pies by his partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett.
About the set, Michael Billington wrote in The Guardian ‘Anthony Ward's design, with its circular gallery filled with gaping windows, evokes the seething activity of a dilapidated, working-class London. But, while providing a portrait of a society that is more early-20th century than mid-Victorian, there is an intense focus on individuals’.
Ward’s set design comprises of a post-industrial Victorian factory, complete with rusting ladders and walkways. In the centre of the stage, is the ubiquitous barber and pie shop, with the red barber’s chair on top, from which Sweeney’s victims descend before being baked in pies by his partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett.
About the set, Michael Billington wrote in The Guardian ‘Anthony Ward's design, with its circular gallery filled with gaping windows, evokes the seething activity of a dilapidated, working-class London. But, while providing a portrait of a society that is more early-20th century than mid-Victorian, there is an intense focus on individuals’.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Watercolour, gouache, metal, foam-board, card and wood |
| Brief description | Set model for the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, designed by Anthony Ward (2011) Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Christopher Bond. Chichester Festival Theatre and Adelphi Theatre, London 2013. |
| Physical description | Model of an open stage, surrounded by a metal balcony with a spiral staircase at the left and a metal staircase at the right. In the centre of the model is a raised square platform with a red barber’s chair on the top. There are hanging metallic lamps towards the rear of the model. At the back of the model are a series of grills, behind one of the the grills is a large black oven and other industrial machines and pipes. Towards the rear left of the model is a baker’s counter. The upper section of the model is surrounded by a series of small windows suggesting an industrial factory. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Given by Anthony Ward |
| Summary | Anthony Ward is one of the leading stage designers of his generation. His work includes theatre, opera and ballet and has long associations with directors such as Phyllida Lloyd, Adrian Noble, and Richard Eyre. The Chichester Festival Theatre production of Sweeney Todd starred Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, and its success guaranteed a transfer into London’s Adelphi Theatre in 2012. The production ran for six months and garnered three Olivier Awards: for Best Musical revival and for Ball and Staunton in the Best Actor and Actress categories. Ward’s set design comprises of a post-industrial Victorian factory, complete with rusting ladders and walkways. In the centre of the stage, is the ubiquitous barber and pie shop, with the red barber’s chair on top, from which Sweeney’s victims descend before being baked in pies by his partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett. About the set, Michael Billington wrote in The Guardian ‘Anthony Ward's design, with its circular gallery filled with gaping windows, evokes the seething activity of a dilapidated, working-class London. But, while providing a portrait of a society that is more early-20th century than mid-Victorian, there is an intense focus on individuals’. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.3789-2015 |
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| Record created | October 19, 2015 |
| Record URL |
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