![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Color was very much a point of this MacBeth, as it was set in Rawanda, around 1960s-ish... although Lady MacB had a wig and costumes that were deliberate references to Michelle Obama. (o.O)
( From the director's notes )
The preshow discussion was about timeless themes in MacBeth - childlessness and how MacDuff cannot revenge himself suitably - "He has no children!" Lineage. Equivocation. And there were notes on previous productions, esp. the one in the 1960s here, where the stage blood for every performance was 2 gallons of actual blood bought fresh from the butcher's every day.
The production was very loud - lots of gunfire, cannonfire, helicopters sounding like they're about to land on your head - and like I said, race was very much an issue. MacBeth and Duncan (and Duncan's children) were all white, while Lady MacBeth, Banquo, and MacDuff and half the rest of the cast were African-Canadian. (There were other minorities too - Lennox and the nurse were Indian.)
The nationalities get rather weird at the end, with major emphasis on the Scottish and English flags everywhere, and the looks on the faces of the soldiers when Duncan's son starts talking about how they're going to do things the English way. (This would have worked fine if Scotland was actually Scotland at the moment, but when it's Rawanda, it got a little "bwa?")
Mixed feelings from the audience - half of it rose and cheered and the other half clapped a bit politely. (And Colm looked terribly giddy and happy for someone whose head was in a bucket downstage.)
( The post show discussion was mostly about race, with a little bit of general acting commentary )
And one teacher from Detroit said he'd brought a set of students up and they had really gotten into it - that doing MacBeth with guns and a racially diverse cast was something they could relate to and it really worked for them.
Today, Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, although without Bruce Dow, who is ill. Tomorrow - a very long drive.
( From the director's notes )
The preshow discussion was about timeless themes in MacBeth - childlessness and how MacDuff cannot revenge himself suitably - "He has no children!" Lineage. Equivocation. And there were notes on previous productions, esp. the one in the 1960s here, where the stage blood for every performance was 2 gallons of actual blood bought fresh from the butcher's every day.
The production was very loud - lots of gunfire, cannonfire, helicopters sounding like they're about to land on your head - and like I said, race was very much an issue. MacBeth and Duncan (and Duncan's children) were all white, while Lady MacBeth, Banquo, and MacDuff and half the rest of the cast were African-Canadian. (There were other minorities too - Lennox and the nurse were Indian.)
The nationalities get rather weird at the end, with major emphasis on the Scottish and English flags everywhere, and the looks on the faces of the soldiers when Duncan's son starts talking about how they're going to do things the English way. (This would have worked fine if Scotland was actually Scotland at the moment, but when it's Rawanda, it got a little "bwa?")
Mixed feelings from the audience - half of it rose and cheered and the other half clapped a bit politely. (And Colm looked terribly giddy and happy for someone whose head was in a bucket downstage.)
( The post show discussion was mostly about race, with a little bit of general acting commentary )
And one teacher from Detroit said he'd brought a set of students up and they had really gotten into it - that doing MacBeth with guns and a racially diverse cast was something they could relate to and it really worked for them.
Today, Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, although without Bruce Dow, who is ill. Tomorrow - a very long drive.
