What is the profit for a man to gain the throne but to lose his life?
Written in 1606 by William Shakespeare, MacBeth chronicles the story of an easily persuaded and ambitious man who falls into insanity. Despite the script’s age, the show maintains its relevance in the contemporary American landscape.
“MacBeth is one of Shakespeare’s best known and most complex plays,” says Communication senior and Lovers and Madmen artistic director Jason Nellis. “The whole purpose of Lovers and Madmen is to bring Shakespeare to campus as a reminder of where theater comes from.”
Lovers and Madmen continues its tradition by bringing life to the complex and intense nature of Shakespeare’s MacBeth – the play of Scottish general MacBeth’s tumultuous rise and fall from power.
The play begins with three witches’ prophesy that MacBeth will wear the crown of Scotland. When Lady MacBeth hears word of this prediction, she persuades her husband to seize the crown by murdering the reigning King Duncan. His actions lead him into mental anguish and propel the country into political chaos.
“I think MacBeth is one of the most accessible plays for a modern audience,” says Communication junior David Winkler, who plays MacBeth. “It shows the mental deterioration when something as heavy as murder weighs on someone’s conscience. This psychological weight is inherent to the text.”
MacBeth is an action-filled, psychological thriller that examines the human psyche, specifically MacBeth’s mental state. Each multidimensional character is a string in an intricate web of tragedy. The audience sees power struggles, corruption, the breakdown of a marriage, delusional descents and murder – all of which add to the show’s intensity and overall appeal.
Considering today’s audience, the original script has been “streamlined” to help the audience focus. “The play is actually well-edited for a Shakespeare play,” says Communication junior Jessie Cluess, who directs the show. “The bits taken out didn’t have any impact upon the story as a whole.”
Cluess approached the executive board of Lovers and Madmen with her idea because she wanted to maintain a traditional medieval setting in order to explore the play’s timeless elements.
“We tend to get a lot of student theater that is intellectually arousing but not emotionally stimulating,” Cluess says. “I think MacBeth is an excellent way to get back to the major points of theater: to make us cry, laugh, scream, to feel fear and despair and to regain our hope and to lose it again.”
As a part of the Lovers and Madmen tradition, a director petitions and conceptualizes a play to the executive board. This method allows directors to choose shows they’re passionate about, rather than the executive board choosing a play and then selecting the producer and director without their input.
Like MacBeth, who is hampered by the witches’ prophecy, the play itself is ironically haunted by an urban legend – the curse of MacBeth. The curse forbids anyone inside the theater to say the play’s title; the mention of the name prompts the worst conditions for a production. Alleged consequences have included terrible performances, mishaps during rehearsals, injuries and death. To avoid the curse, thespians generally call it “the Scottish play” as a euphemism.
Communication junior and co-producer Molly Schneider believes the curse to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. “When someone says the word ‘Macbeth’ in the theatre, people get nervous and make mistakes,” she says.
Certain reports, however, reaffirm the veracity of this myth. In a South African production of the play, a passerby asked the name of the play in production. As soon as the cast member murmured “MacBeth,” a spear reportedly fell from out of an upper window and killed the passerby. Another example is the 1998 off-Broadway production of MacBeth with Angela Bassett and Alec Baldwin: Baldwin inadvertently sliced the hand of the actor playing MacDuff.
Cluess has already seen the curse become a reality, too. Cluess performed in a MacBeth production – prior to coming to Northwestern – where the cast and crew ignored the myth. The day before the show, Cluess was accidentally stabbed in the foot.
“I was very aware about how the curse could go,” Cluess says. “We had a few little crazy moments, but hopefully it’s not going to affect us too much. It is certainly something you think about.”
The cast and crew talked about the curse of MacBeth early on in the rehearsal process. At first, everyone ignored the curse. They continued to ignore it until problems started to arise, such as assembling a crew. “I’m usually not a superstitious person, but I don’t want to take any chances with something this big,” Winkler says.
The MacBeth curse notwithstanding, Nellis is very excited about the production and the cast and crew. He’s confident the audience will be impressed, even though they may be familiar with the story.
“We trust the audience to take from the play what they will,” Nellis says. “My hope is that they will come and see a presentation of a play that they know and will have some new things highlighted for them.”
MacBeth is playing at Shanley Pavilion, 2031 Sheridan Rd., Feb. 23 through Feb. 25. Tickets cost $5 for students and $10 for adults. Tickets are available at the door, at the Norris Box Office or online at www.loversandmadmen.com.
Communication junior Aaron Mays is a PLAY writer. He can be reached at [email protected].