In an incredible opportunity, Queensland Theatre Company in association with Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe, secured the talents of acclaimed British director, Michael Attenborough CBE, for its production of Macbeth. Once the Principal Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre, his productions are testament to his passion and intimate knowledge of Shakespeare’s work.
We already have over 3500 students booked in to see this amazing production. The design presentation was enough for me to know this is certainly not going to be your average production of Macbeth. The Playhouse Theatre will be transformed into the dense and dark forest, where secrets and lies will hide and reveal themselves.
In the piece below, Michael talks about his vision for Macbeth and the theme of fear, which is ever present in the text.
War, Madness and Witchcraft
By Michael Attenborough CBE
The word ‘fear’ is used in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ more than in any of his other plays.
Witches, ghosts, apparitions, infanticide, civil war, madness, imaginary daggers, moving forests – it’s hardly surprising the word regularly crops up.
Shakespeare invites us on a scary rollercoaster ride on the back of his leanest, most thrilling dramatic masterpiece.
Our challenge today is to conjure up a theatrical world in which people have to live right on the edge of survival. A world where witches can read your mind and reveal your darkest desires. A world where homicide could just be around the corner, where you are almost certainly being spied on and where you can trust no one.
November 5th 1605: Catholic zealots are narrowly foiled in their meticulously conceived plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, obliterate the ruling elite and assassinate the King; the culprits are paraded through the streets, publicly hung,
SOMETHING WICKED
their bellies sliced open and their innards displayed to the angry, vengeful crowds.
All this within a mile of Shakespeare’s home.
Is it any wonder he wrote a play founded on fear?
I also interviewed Jason Klarwein, Artistic Director of Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe and playing the lead role of Macbeth.
Of all of the Shakespeare’s, why Macbeth?
Shakespeare (along with his contemporaries) reinvented the dramatic form. Before Shakespeare, plays throughout the centuries had heroes and heroines, who go on journeys and are impeded by the fates, and hence morality tales of Good vs Evil are told. Shakespeare asked a different question - What does it mean to be human? And, in the dramatic form he presents little or no personal judgement. Along with the invention of Blank Verse and the Soliloquy, Shakespeare gives us free will and choice.
The dramatic human was born. Conflicted in opposites. Contradictory yet powerful. This is the essence of dramatic tension. Not just what is happening between people but what is happening between the core emotional and intellectual molecules of a human being. Shakespeare's characters are whole, like you or me. Macbeth for example is charming, popular, intelligent, highly imaginative, loving, a good husband, a great friend, a loyal soldier with a strong physical presence. He is equally repulsive, stupid, full of hate and jealousy, non caring, distrustful, disloyal, a traitor, a sociopath and a murderer of kings, men, women and children.
‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ is a great example of Shakespeare as the mature writer. The play is almost all in blank verse, highly poetic and yet economical. The play has no secondary plot to keep up with, is full of psychological intrigue and stands up against any modern day thriller. It also has witches, invisible daggers, ghosts, murders and fight scenes. It is a hugely popular play with modern audiences and we only need to look to Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Kim Jong Un in North Korea or Viktor Yanukovych in the Ukraine to realise the play's potency.
Heidi Irvine, Education Program Coordinator at Queensland Theatre Company, tells us about the performance we have been waiting for all year – Macbeth. Heidi interviews the director, Michael Attenborough and Artistic Director of Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe Jason Klarwein to give us a look into this performance.
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this way comes