Stripped down Macbeth will be a stretch for actors
Witches among the audience for Fringe Underground Theatre production, which sees cast of seven play 16 roles
of the most frequently produced of Shakespeare's plays, largely because it has always been popular with audiences and generally fills theatres. There are a number of good reasons for this. It has some the most memorable of the great Shakespearean soliloquies, compelling dramatic characters, and an always relevant theme in the corrosive effect on character of ambition and power. It has enough roles for a large cast, but can also be reduced to accommodate a small one. A cynic might also point out that even uncut, it is relatively short, leaving more time to grab dinner after the show.
It is possible that it was originally a longer work, and that some of the text has been lost. We do not know the early performance history of what superstitious actors call "the Scottish play", although given that Banquo was an ancestor of King James I of England and VI of Scotland it is a fairly safe bet that it was within his reign. Shakespeare liked to keep his royal patrons happy.
It has been trotted out fairly often over the years in Hong Kong, but, as the director of the latest interpretation, Sweet and Sour Productions' Candice Moore points out, usually on a larger stage than that of the Fringe Underground. "I've been wanting to do it for quite a while because it's one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, and also because of the Scottish element [Moore is a Scot]. It just seemed like the right time to do it. I've cut it down to 16 roles, covered by seven actors. It was a case of stripping everything down to the bare essentials."
In addition to stressing the play's Scottishness through kilts, tartan and accents, Moore is also emphasising the supernatural elements and the roles of the three witches. "The witches will be in amongst the audience and surrounding the audience as much as possible. My idea is that as soon as the audience comes in, they're very much in the world of the play. The theatre is being decorated as part of the set design, and the witches take charge," says Moore.
Among the biggest challenges she faced when developing the production were cutting the text, and allocating the roles so that five of the seven actors can handle multiple parts without confusion. "It was hard to decide what would stay and what would go, and I discussed it at length with the actors. I've seen Shakespeare cut in ways that make it difficult to follow. I've cut this down to one hour and 45 minutes, and always at the forefront of my mind was how clear it would be to the audience," she says.
The two leads, Nicholas Atkinson as Macbeth and Muriel Hofmann as Lady Macbeth, have enough to contend with in their roles as the tormented murderous couple, but the others will all be at least doubling up. Jai Day doubles as Banquo and a murderer; Henry Coombs as another murderer, King Duncan, and Macduff; Jacqueline Gourlay Grant as first witch, a porter, a nobleman, and a doctor; Vicki Rummun as second witch, wife of Macduff, a nobleman, and a gentlewoman; and Hamish Campbell as third witch, Malcolm and the son of Macduff.
"They're all versatile actors and can all play multiple roles, and it's good to have that in the mix. It was tricky working out who plays who, but it all made sense. That's all part of the process," says Moore, who had worked with Atkinson before on Sweet and Sour's staging of . "It's the first time he's played a lead in Shakespeare, but he's an experienced actor who trained at the Bristol Old Vic and has worked in the West End. He was in in London and other productions. In Hong Kong he teaches drama, but also does a lot of corporate work and has done some film work, so he has quite a varied freelance career."
Hoffmann, meanwhile, has the challenge of breathing fresh life into Lady Macbeth's set-piece soliloquies, including the bloodthirsty one in Act One which includes the famous lines:
"Unsex me here/And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/Of direst cruelty".
"In rehearsal, she asked, 'How dark do you want me to go?' and I told her, 'Go for it'," recalls Moore. "For me, this needs to get beyond people speaking the speeches nicely, and the actors know that, and they agree."
Some of the casting clearly has been gender-blind, and the entire cast will be in for an hour and three quarters per night of fairly hard work. "You can't have 12 people on stage at the Fringe. It looks a bit overcrowded. Most scenes are three or four actors maximum. For the actors it's a stretch, but I think it's a good and exciting way to do it, and it's a challenge for us all," she says.
"It's making it work in the space. It's not being done at the APA or the Cultural Centre, it's being done at The Fringe, which is obviously smaller, but I think it will be just as effective because it's up close and personal for the audience."
