Together with Unifaun Theatre Productions, the Manoel Theatre will be bringing William Shakespeare’s celebrated tragedy Macbeth to the the stage on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
It is directed by maverick UK-based theatre director Clive Judd and features a great number of established local talent in the cast, starting with Mikhail Basmadjian in the title role, Chris Dingli as Macduff and Jes Camilleri as Duncan. Local favourite Erica Muscat, who will play the role of Lady Macbeth, will be joined by other local talented actors including Jonathan Dunn, Julia Camilleri, Antonella Mifsud, Antonella Axisa, Naomi Knight, Brendon Thearle and Alex Weeninck.
Designed by Italian designer Romualdo Moretti, with sound design from award-winning UK artist Giles Thomas and lighting from acclaimed designer Chris Gatt, all the ingredients are there for a top-notch staging of Shakespeare’s well-known play. But how do you go about this classical play today?
In this version, Macbeth finds himself subconsciously adopting Shakespeare’s story. It is within this narrative that he finally gets to become king and thus experiences a taste of power and control.
“When I started to consider why someone would choose Macbeth as a parallel narrative to their own life it led me to far more domestic, intimate revelations about Shakespeare’s play; the nature of loss, inferiority complex, mental health, late capitalism and depression – all notions that I’ve circled around in other projects in one form or the other. More than a play about vaulting ambition it became a study of our search for meaning, purpose and sense of self, as well as an examination of trauma, loss and the actions it begets,” Judd clarifies.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth together attempt to conceive something new from the grief-stricken wreckage of unimaginable loss, but this time their child is delivered in the form of Shakespeare’s murderous plot.
Therefore, the characters in this version become not only those of the author, but also those responsible for the everyday traumas one might experience in a life outside of Shakespeare’s play.
“Situations we all recognise,” says Judd. “The employer whose lifestyle one covets, the colleague who seems to know you better than you know yourself, the illicit relationship that eats one away from the inside. Seen as a metaphysical nightmare marked by a loosening sense of reason and objectivity Macbeth moves away from the political in the sense of nation and becomes political on the scale of the domestic – applicable to and associated with the everyday human being, and less those of literal kings and queens.
“We are examining the effects of modern politics upon ordinary human beings and conjouring the ghosts of real existence manipulated by the traumatised mind – where the protagonist decides what part each character plays and whether they live or die.”
Macbeth is a co-production between The Manoel Theatre and Unifaun Theatre Productions and is partially funded by the Malta Arts Council through the MAF Project Fund. For tickets and further information, visit www.teatrumanoel.com.mt or call 2124 6389.