LIGHT and dark combine for the tale of Sweeney Todd, York Light’s heavyweight production to mark both the company’s 70th anniversary and last November’s passing of composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim at 91.

Director-choreographer Martyn Knight gives Sondheim’s musical thriller at York Theatre Royal a gothic grand scale and gory Georgian setting

Costume designers Suzanne Ayers and Jean Wilkinson and wardrobe co-ordinator Carly Price pull out all the stops, and under conductor Paul Laidlaw, keyboardist Simon Kelly’s organ swells to unnerving effect.

The grave mien and embittered baritone of Neil Wood’s ponytailed Sweeney Todd further concentrates the mind as he flees Australia to return to East London after 15 years of wrongful exile at Botany Bay, vowing vengeance on corrupt Judge Turpin (Craig Kirby).

The self-flagellating Judge is the abusive ward to Sweeney’s daughter Johanna (Madeleine Hicks), keeping her like a caged bird: a revelation that brings even more of a cutting edge to Sweeney’s resumption of his demon barbershop business above the worst pie gaff in London town.

Mrs Lovett (Julie Anne Smith) needs an upgrade from the grit and gristle in her pies; Sweeney is up for a slice of the action, when she turns out to be as manipulative as Lady Macbeth. Mrs Lovett may be devoid of humanity, but now that there is 100 per cent humanity in her pies, they turn out to be bloodily good - a fact celebrated in God, That’s Good, the ensemble high point.

Behind dark eyes and a bustling air, add Smith’s humour, love-a-duck London accent and top-notch singing, and hers is a best-in-show performance.

As the bodies pile up, a macabre darkness of humour permeates the audience response, all the more so for Wood’s Sweeney not changing his countenance. Yet vulnerability courses through his inner turmoil.

Praise too for Maximus Mawle’s Anthony Hope and Hicks’s Johanna in the young love roles, plus a treat of a camply comic turn from Richard Bayton as henchman Beadle Bamford and Clare Meadley’s homeless Beggar Woman. Martin Lay has great fun with his faux Italian accent as preposterous, twinkling rival barber Adolfo Pirelli. And Jonny Holbek's Tobias Ragg, assistant first to Pirelli then kitchen aid to Mrs Lovett, is a scene stealer: humour and tragedy, light and darkness, hope and desperation all at play in his performance.

Paul Laidlaw’s wind and brass players, together with Kelly’s keyboards and Francesca Rochester and Laurie Gunson’s percussion, bring out all the drama and rich musicality in Sondheim’s score, while Martin Knight’s choreography adds to the deliciously dark delights of this juicy psychological drama. Make sure to grab a bite of this very tasty pie.

Performances: 7.30pm, tonight until Saturday. plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623 568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.