Macbeth (Who Is That Bloodied Man)
Macbeth on a bouncy castle any one
| 08 Sep 2007
Founded in 1988 by Pawel Szokotak, fringe First-winning Polish company Teatr Biuro Podrozy are renowned worldwide for their Carmen Funebre. This year the company returned to Edinburgh with their own interpretation of Macbeth - subtitled Who is that Bloodied Man?. Like Carmen Funebre, which dealt with the horrors of the Yugoslav confict, this production also focuses on a land torn apart by war and on the cusp of order and chaos.
Macbeth's original 13th Century setting is an appropriate template for a war torn environment where murder for power and violent death are the norm, and witches and ghosts mix with the living. This production eloquently portrays the impenetrable and confusing fog of war. The cast wear vaguely Germanic World War Two outfits, drive motorbikes and pack big guns. Percussion plays a major role. The noise of the guns, the screeches and pops of the two stroke bikes reverberate around the quad of Edinburgh University's Old College. The witches wield outsized football rattles and, whether through happy coincidence or remarkably accurate timing, the fireworks of the nearby Tattoo fire just as Macbeth is crowned.
Set design, movement and sound are absolutely integral to this production with only a few lines of the original play actually delivered. A large gong above the mobile set bleeds when Duncan is murdered, Banquo's ghost is represented by skulls rattling round an overgrown grass roller which chases Macbeth around the gravel strewn set. And of course, the company's trademark use of fire and stilt walkers is much in evidence. The stilts are especially effective in lending the witches a grotesque, nightmarish Hieronymous Bosch aspect. The rest of the soundtrack is provided by a black shrouded figure perched on a lighting rig whose ethereal wailing rarely lets up.
While the audience have to stand for the whole performance (with those at
the front running the risk of getting kicked in the head by a stilt sporting harpy) the tension is held and there are certainly much worse ways to spend an hour at the fringe. Macbeth on a bouncy castle any one? [Adam McCully]
Macbeth's original 13th Century setting is an appropriate template for a war torn environment where murder for power and violent death are the norm, and witches and ghosts mix with the living. This production eloquently portrays the impenetrable and confusing fog of war. The cast wear vaguely Germanic World War Two outfits, drive motorbikes and pack big guns. Percussion plays a major role. The noise of the guns, the screeches and pops of the two stroke bikes reverberate around the quad of Edinburgh University's Old College. The witches wield outsized football rattles and, whether through happy coincidence or remarkably accurate timing, the fireworks of the nearby Tattoo fire just as Macbeth is crowned.
Set design, movement and sound are absolutely integral to this production with only a few lines of the original play actually delivered. A large gong above the mobile set bleeds when Duncan is murdered, Banquo's ghost is represented by skulls rattling round an overgrown grass roller which chases Macbeth around the gravel strewn set. And of course, the company's trademark use of fire and stilt walkers is much in evidence. The stilts are especially effective in lending the witches a grotesque, nightmarish Hieronymous Bosch aspect. The rest of the soundtrack is provided by a black shrouded figure perched on a lighting rig whose ethereal wailing rarely lets up.
While the audience have to stand for the whole performance (with those at
the front running the risk of getting kicked in the head by a stilt sporting harpy) the tension is held and there are certainly much worse ways to spend an hour at the fringe. Macbeth on a bouncy castle any one? [Adam McCully]