4/5/2023 0 Comments To be a fair shakespeer![]() ![]() They have each choreographed many fights in their careers, but Wilkerson said the last fight between Macduff and Macbeth is one of the best he has seen on stage. We start in a battle and the witches come in almost immediately,” described Wilkerson, with a gleeful tone at describing “Macbeth” as one of his favorite Shakespearean plays to work on. “It’s such a perfect little play…the scenes tend to be short and almost cinematic, and it hits the action early. Carrie Brewer, assisted by director David Wilkerson, executed many battle scenes that carry the show’s energy right from the very beginning. The trio brings an impending sense of doom to the show overall.Īnother feature of this show was the intensely crafted fight choreography. ![]() When it seems that a mortal character is unable to execute these horrible deeds, a witch enters the scene and grasps the dagger and assists in the final blow of each murder, with the remaining wicked sisters surrounding the freshly dead corpse like vultures and sucking some sort of glowing energy out of their lifeless bodies through tubes. As the witches lurk in the background of most scenes, another very powerful direction was using their presence to ensure all of the murders. For instance, when Banquo makes his first appearance as a ghostly apparition at a dinner party, the witches are controlling his limp corpse with tubes and a gas mask of Banquo’s own, connecting him to the witches like a gruesome puppet. Some of the most striking scenes involve the witches with their gas masks manipulating the spirits of the dead that only Macbeth can see. In the show the witches feed off of pollution and corruption and tempt characters like Macbeth, becoming stronger with each decision and leading to corruption and evil. “I wanted them to be a physical manifestation of the evil and corruption in the land and also the evil and corruption in the character’s choices,” he elaborated. (Photo courtesy of Rick Malkin and the Nashville Shakespeare Festival) The gas-mask-wearing witches, with MTSU theatre alumna Delaney Keith on right. He used their disturbing aura very well, having them perched around the stage ominously, watching every action of the other characters. “I saw this wonderful image of this sort of Mad Max figure with a gas mask on, and I was like oh heck yeah! That’s the witches,” said Wilkerson. When adopting this vision for the show, he came across a series of images that really struck a chord for how certain characters would be portrayed. From costumes to stage and sound design, everything sucks you into this desolate world of death and misery. The production of this touring show was expertly crafted to enhance the vision of Wilkerson. David Wilkerson, the director and no stranger to the world of Shakespeare, takes us on a dark reimagining of an already tragic story, and asks us the question in a world where so much of our humanity has been stripped away, and any scraps are precious, “What does it mean in that kind of world, to still make those choices that throw away that last little thread of humanity?” Following the classic storyline, the cast uses the original language, with caring revisions. The secrets of guns and bombs have been lost in the destruction, and warriors use more crude weapons such as spears and swords. A few rugged clans have risen up from ashes of this nuclear desert and fight brutally over any remaining resources, as not obtaining these resources results in most certain death. The world is reduced to a toxic wasteland full of apocalyptic nightmares at every turn. That’s is the entry point into the Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s current production of “Macbeth.” This version of the Scottish play is set a hundred years after the fall of modern civilization as we know it. The clash of swords and a mother crying are heard as a battle rages on and a baby is dying. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |