KEIGHLEY Playhouse is serving up its final production of the season.

Sweeney Todd will be performed from Monday, June 12, until Saturday, June 17. Evening performances are at 7.30pm.

A thriller set in Victorian England, it centres on a murderous barber who extracts revenge on unsuspecting people in London for the cruel abuse of his wife.

Based on a 1973 book by Christopher Bond, Sweeney Todd was made into a major film starring Johnny Depp in 2007.

But the play is very different from both the film and a musical.

A playhouse spokesperson says: "In this version of the old melodrama, Todd has some grounds for his nefarious activities. His wife was abducted and raped by Judge Turpin and his daughter abandoned, while he himself was deported on a false charge. He returns to avenge his family, accompanied by a sea captain, Anthony, whose life he saved. Anthony falls in love with a young girl, the judge’s ward, who turns out to be Todd’s daughter.

"Todd, meanwhile, sets up with Mrs Lovett the pie maker and provides her with dubious fillings for her pies. He proceeds with his vengeful plans, but the outcome is bitterly ironic.

"The most important theme of the play is the portrayal of the complete futility of revenge – how it blinds the one seeking it and is nothing but a moment of satisfaction that leads to a future largely built on regret."

The barber’s chair in the production is an original French design manufactured in 1897, which has appeared in a number of professional productions of both the play and the musical.

Taking the lead as Sweeney Todd is Dale Chadwick, who earlier this season played the chilling Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace. Debbie Ellison, a well-known Keighley Playhouse actress, plays Mrs Lovett.

Other cast members include Tim Lobley as Judge Turpin, Matthew and Hannah Douglass, Harry Rundle, Ashley Judge, Katharine Hickman, Kevin Moore and Mike Ellison.

The play is directed by Deborah Mouat.

For tickets, contact the box office on 07599 890769.

Next season opens in September and plays lined up are Dangerous Corner, by JB Priestley; Jeeves and Wooster, adapted by David and Robert Goodale; Dead of Night, a thriller by Peter Whalley; comedy Waiting for God, by Michael Aitkens; Yes, Prime Minister, by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn; Busybody, a comedy by Jack Popplewell, and Spider’s Web, by Agatha Christie.