For this production of Macbeth I have set the performance in the time period of the early Celtic tribes, when the Romans were still present and influenced the culture and fighting style of the people. Historically, in the Celtic tradition during this time period women and men fought on the battlefield as equals and helped one another. The women were powerful warriors who were treated as equals in the Celtic tribal society. For this production, I went one step further and modeled the production after a matriarchal society, very much like the Amazonian tradition. In this version of Macbeth that I adapted the women are in power and the men in the show are not in power. I wanted to examine the notion that if women were in power they would have the potential to be corrupted just as easily as men in power can be corrupted. I asked the fight choreographer to model the fighting styles after the Roman more disciplined fighting style for Macbeth and the other tribes are more savage. We kept the fights more brutal as they would have been in 500 BC, thus making the show more interesting to see women in such a powerful position opposed to the normal characters available for female actresses. The students have worked very hard and it has been awesome to see this production come alive with such a strong female warrior prescience that is not often available for young women.
In the show I added the opening fight so the audience can see the battle that Macbeth is a hero in and see that Macbeth starts out with honor but her hunger for power leads her down a dark and ultimately devastating path. We hope you enjoy our twist in retelling this iconic story of SHakespeare's Macbeth.
See Page 10 to view some of the images that inspired my ideas for makeup and costumes for the show.
