Robert Mack - Exclusive Interview From The Interview Online
Robert Mack
In this interview Nicola Barranger talks to Robert L. Mack, Senior Lecturer in English at Exeter University in the South West of England who edited the new version.
Click to hear Robert Mack
They discuss the origins of the tale and how Sweeney Todd was not the main character in the original story. Subsequent interpretations even included a ballet by John Cranko before Stephen Sondheim collaborated with Hugh Wheeler to create the famous 1979 version.
Robert Mack explains how the pair drew on a version by Christopher Bond for Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in Stratford East. And as for the new Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version - as a Sondheim expert, Robert Mack gives his view.
To tie in with the new Tim Burton film Sweeney Todd, OUP publishes the first edition of the macabre story since the 19th century.