[Barberous]

Has anybody read, seen or been in it? Is it worthwhile?

[Salome]

I read it years ago. its very similar to the musical in plot and even many of the lines. but its not as avant garde in its writing as the musical adaptation.

[The Pirate King]

[Salome]

the use of the greek chorus and the factory whistle..the fact that its set in a factory and not in real time.the very brechtian sensibilities of the show.

[The Pirate King]

[Ghost]

A direct quote by Sondheim from the brochure of the John Doyle version in London conserning Sweeney Todd being Brechtian.

"People say that because it takes place in Dickensian time, and the only Brecht they know is The threepenny Opera. A chorus comes out in rags and starts to sing a song and they suddenly say "It's Brecht!" and ofcouse it isn't Brechtian at all. It's absolutely the reverse of Brecht. His whole theory, his importance in the victory of the theatre, is the so-called alienation effect, having things deliberately not involve you. The idea of Sweeney is the idea of a horror movie, which is to say "I want to tell you a story... and this happened... and then the door suddenly opened!" That's not Brecht."

[Barberous]

When I first saw (well, heard) 'No Place Like London', I very confidently thought "I totally get this. How very Brechtian, the way they don't even try to disguise the fact that the Beggar Woman isn't a proper character, but rather a convenient living embodiment of the hypocrisy / moral squalour of Sweeney's London; his 'exhibit A', if you will. *smug mode* " And because it distracted me from what she was really about, my Brechtian interpretation ended up contributing to the emotional punch of the ending. So perhaps Brechtian techniques were employed to non-Brechtian ends...!?

[Mungojerrie_rt]

When I saw the movie, as soon as I saw the Beggar Woman I thought: "That's his wife. She's not dead."

[Barberous]

Ah well. In my defense, my Sweeney 'first time' was listening to the OBCR, so I didn't have visual clues as to her identity. *Looks around pessimistically in anticipation of the many forum members who probably got who she was from early on in the OBCR* Who knows, perhaps I would have got it anyway if my theatre pretentiousness hadn't got in the way

[Salome]

I'd tihnk most theatre folk are also familiar with Brecht's Mahgonny, Caucasian Chalk Circle and possibly Gallileo.

its brechtian in the sense that the actors play to the audience..talk to the audience..and at times disembody themselves from their roles to do so. its also brechtian in a very socio-political way.

[Brock07]