Evil doers Drew Johnston and Yannick Grignon with Peter Holbook, aka Macbeth, in IE Weldon’s current production of Macbeth
I, unlike a lot of people my age, have always been interested in Shakespeare. It would be unfair, though, to say that everyone about my age dislikes the Bard’s plays. When my school, IE Weldon, held open auditions for a production of Macbeth, I was one of many to show up. After a few days of anxious waiting, I saw the cast list posted: I was to have the smallish but fun part of the cleverly titled Second Murderer.
That was four or five months ago, so fast forward to today. It has been fun to see the play take form, over a fairly short period of time, going from a group of teenagers stumbling over Elizabethan language in a table read-through to a play that is visibly Shakespeare’s Macbeth. And yet, the play has a distinctly modern vibe to it, as well. The script has been changed ever so slightly, spectacularly outdated words and terms having been replaced with more understandable ones, while keeping all the great quotes and the majority of dialogue untouched.
The most dramatic change from traditional productions, though, is the use the music of the Rolling Stones as a setpiece, played over scene changes, and with a few very effective cues based on the song lyrics, most notably the opening line (“Please allow me to introduce myself”) to “Sympathy for the Devil” – the production’s unofficial theme song.
Besides this contemporary backdrop, though, the play remains very traditional. It is set in medieval Scotland, which provides, in addition to great costumes, a real sense of being in a play about, well, Macbeth, 11th-century king of Scotland. The play itself is looking fantastic, at least from what I can catch from the wings. It is a very dark play, (there are three characters whose names are Murderer!) but there are, here and there, much-needed moments of comedy, especially brilliantly done by the Porter, whose antics are made all the more entertaining because of their sheer out-of-place-ness.
In all, I’m really glad to have been a part of this play. In large part, this is because of how well-directed is was, others in the cast having commented that this is the first time they’ve heard a director say that things were going great well ahead of schedule. But there are other reasons, too. I have met new people, and gotten to know acquaintances, especially my fellow murderers, better. All the long rehearsals, messing up of choreography, and sitting quietly in the dark backstage have, in my opinion, been well worth it when you see the finished product.
