General News
25 April, 2025
Musical success for local group
The recent performance season of The Forbidden Forest's production of 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' saw local talents grace the stage, bringing the thriller musical adaptation to life during the Wimmera Steampunk Festival.
Director Shane Harman said the performances were "fantastic".
"I couldn't have asked for more," Mr Harman said.
"It was an awesome show, very well rehearsed and well delivered."
The cast of 15 Wimmera locals performed the dark musical across four days and made it a must-see during the festival.
Based on the book by Hugh Wheeler, the 1979 musical follows Sweeney Todd as he returns home to London and opens a barber shop above Mrs Lovett's pie shop.
The story soon takes a deadly turn and he begins a murderous rampage, killing his customers to keep up with the demand of Mrs Lovett's "meat pies".
"After the first night we found ticket sales went up because of word of mouth," Mr Harman said.
He said a total of 550 tickets were sold over the four shows, the Friday night show being the biggest.
"The venue had a capacity of 160 and the lowest we had was 115 people," he said.
"We had people from every state buy tickets."
Mr Harman said they already planned to do another show in line with the next Wimmera Steampunk Festival.
"The aim was to tie it in with the steampunk festival so we can build that reputation of putting on a great show," he said.
"The next step is to find our own venue that we can call home and store all our things in."
Mr Harman expressed thanks to those who volunteered their time to help on show days, to the cast and to everyone who bought tickets.
"We're really excited moving forward and seeing what it will bring," he said.
