This is a psychological gothic tale of the demon barber of Fleet street.
Freddie Jones performance is of a man unhinged, melancholic and sinister.
The story opens with Sweeney Todd murdering a man who is in a hurry to an important meeting. He is meeting his fiance's family and he has with him a valuable set of pearls. The pearls seals his fate.
However the gift of the pearls will not win the heart of of Mrs Lovett, the owner of the pie shop. She knows it is dangerous to accept them. However if the pearls were converted into money, that is a different matter.
It is just not Todd's customers who get more than they bargain for. His young apprentices tend to end up in the lunatic asylum as they have a fantastic story to tell.
This Freudian production jumps in time, we see Todd as a child who is sent to a sinister doctor. Quack doctors are a theme here.
The various awkward time jumps can be confusing, compounded by the same actors playing several roles.
I liked Jones's performance, essentially it one that of a man who is deluded and insane. The production is set bound with some good use of lightning and reflections. However nowadays it comes across as too stagebound and confusing.