One of Shakespeare’s most well known tragedies, often referred to as the Scottish play or the play that shall not be named, Macbeth is a play that is often held as a taboo within the theater community. The legend goes that if you utter the play’s name if you are not performing it in your theater, your production is bound to go wrong. And even though Emmanuel is performing it, those within the production have only started to reference it as Macbeth starting at tech week. Emmanuel decided to put a new spin on the play, looping this production in with the school’s running Theater Macabre world, a dystopian future where the government has outlawed self expression and theater performances in order to control the masses. This rendition of Macbeth follows a group of resisters who are putting on this production in an underground railway station for a group of onlookers.
The beginning of the production opens with a government radio announcement warning citizens of interacting with resisters, this radio station is then changed by our Porter, then the fun begins. The witches emerge in colorful and bizarre makeup with outfits that include small tops and fishnets. Then they bring out our cast of characters, with leather jackets, spikes, corsets, and dyed hair. The whole costume design of this production is grunge, badass and sexy. This production is dynamic with an opening dance sequence that leads into a battle report with outstanding fight choreography, actual metal swords and weapons, and the clashing of steel in the play space on the same field as the audience. The intensity is kept throughout this production as the language has not been changed, but dance sequences, fight choreography, flashing lights and even a fog machine are added to emphasize the major plot points. A red strobe effect is added during the many murders in this play, the fog machine is used as Lady Macbeth communicates with the demons and the ending battle between Macbeth and MacDuff is done beautifully by Erin Wheeler (Macbeth) and Cam Lezama (MacDuff). The two have spent hours perfecting the climax of this story, even taking a trip to Dean College to work more personally with Nick Wakely, the fight choreographer for this production.
This production was also student choreographed for the dances, with Victoria Rosado, Bess Hughes and Hannah Fuller creating these driving moments with the witches as lifts, kicks and aerials are used. Our cast also has made this production more intimate and suggestive than usual. This was achieved by working with Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE), and specifically Laura Rikard, a group dedicated to educating performers on the portrayal of sexual and intimate relationship onstage. The intimacy of this production achieved by the actors is what makes it special, especially with the amount of workshops and stage violence sessions that those involved took in order to achieve the safety needed to perform it. The dedication that all of the cast and crew have shown made this production the badass rendition of Macbeth that it is.