EDFRINGE REVIEW: Lovett (BoonDog Theatre)
Lovett - ★★★★☆ - Compelling
BoonDog Theatre
30 Jul – 25 Aug
Review by Rebecca Mahar
We know Sweeney Todd’s backstory, but what about Mrs. Lovett? How did she get where we find her at the start of her partnership with the Demon Barber? That’s the premise of BoonDog Theatre’s new work Lovett, written and performed by Lucy Roslyn, with direction from Jamie Firth.
Best known from the Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd, Mrs. Lovett’s existence, like Sweeney’s, goes back to the mid-19th century penny dreadful The String of Pearls. Both have been unreliably asserted to be based on real people, and there have been many versions of Mrs. Lovett over the years, offering both plenty of material and room for creative license in the creation of Roslyn’s.
30 Jul – 25 Aug
Review by Rebecca Mahar
We know Sweeney Todd’s backstory, but what about Mrs. Lovett? How did she get where we find her at the start of her partnership with the Demon Barber? That’s the premise of BoonDog Theatre’s new work Lovett, written and performed by Lucy Roslyn, with direction from Jamie Firth.
Best known from the Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd, Mrs. Lovett’s existence, like Sweeney’s, goes back to the mid-19th century penny dreadful The String of Pearls. Both have been unreliably asserted to be based on real people, and there have been many versions of Mrs. Lovett over the years, offering both plenty of material and room for creative license in the creation of Roslyn’s.
Lucy Roslyn in Lovett. Pic: Andrew Perry.
We join Mrs. Lovett in the Cellar at Pleasance Courtyard, where she is methodically sharpening a knife on a stone. “Some people don’t like this sound…” she chuckles, “oh dear.” It’s a fitting introduction to a show that is unvarnished and confronting, making no bones about the harshness of life that led Mrs. Lovett to where we find her now. It neither romanticises nor fetishises, only allows Mrs. Lovett to tell her own story for once.
From her name and that of her mother, Hélène, who taught her the ways of le sourire and the power it can hold, to the priest who betrayed Hélène, to her first meeting with a youthful Mr. Todd, to her marriage with the amiable Mr. Lovett, a gentleman of London, Roslyn embodies the tensely fascinating narrative of Eleanor, more than simply Mrs. Lovett. She frames Eleanor’s story through a series of recalibrations, as the woman adjusts herself to the life she experiences, and how much of her true self she reveals or withholds.
Lucy Roslyn in Lovett. Pic: Andrew Perry.
Lovett makes the most of the tiny space that is the Pleasance Cellar, particularly given that the centre of it is taken up by a large butcher’s block. Roslyn spends much of her time behind this block, though she occasionally circles or climbs atop it, but the show never feels too static, a testament to Roslyn’s skilled delivery and physical commitment and specificity. Her vocal performance of the different characters in the narrative is also perfectly pitched: specific enough to differentiate them from Eleanor, and consistent throughout, but subtle enough to retain the feel that it is Eleanor impersonating them as she tells her story.
This is not a story for the faint of heart, but it is a story worth hearing. For fans of Sondheim, it will enrich your view of the enigmatic Mrs. Lovett, and how she came to make pies of priest and crave a life by the sea. For everyone else, it offers a compelling look into the story of what could have been any number of nineteenth century women in London, and the circumstances that drive them to gruesome choices.
Running time: One hour with no interval
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard (Cellar), 60 Pleasance EH8 9TJ
30 July – 25 August 2025
Time: 12:30pm
Tickets: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/lovett
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