I will have last BLOOD!

…

Okay, explanation time.

Last night I saw the production of Macbeth (it’s written and not in a theatre, so curses don’t apply), and I have to say I enjoyed myself immensely. Not to say that I thought it was going to be bad; I know we have a bunch of incredibly talented actors and directors here on campus (and off campus too. Not all of our actors are guys). But you see, I am an actor myself, so seeing a school-type play that I am not in is a newer experience for me, especially one like Macbeth.

I’ve seen Macbeth before back when I think I was in middle school. It was being performed at a college where my dad was working as a financial advisor, and they had changed things up a bit by moving it from Scotland to Japan, so they were dressed in Japanese style clothing and had katanas instead of claymores. This is not a bad thing; directors often choose to move the action from one place to another, so they can go for different viewpoints and aesthetics that would be unachievable in a traditional performance. This gives the play a unique feel to it, and we get a much more satisfying viewing experience. Personally, I performed a version of Much Ado About Nothing that was set in the ‘20s, and I think it went pretty well.

Anyway, the play; so, Macbeth is a general who goes out and kills things, and one day on his way home from killing things he meets three witches that say he’s going to be king. He blows them off at first, but begins to consider their prophecy when everything starts going good for him. So to show his gratitude to the current king, he kills the guy in his sleep and proclaims himself king.

Yay.

After that, Mackers starts getting increasingly paranoid, killing off his friends and his potential enemies’ families to make sure his position is secured. The exiled prince and England don’t really like that, so they dress up like trees and go attack Scotland. MacB thinks he’ll be okay, since “no man of woman born” can hurt him, but Macduff was born via C-Section, so he doesn’t count. Macduff kills MacScottish Dude and the exiled prince becomes king… at least until Banquo’s son overthrows him and becomes king in the sequel (if there was one).

Yay.

The actors in our production were superb, portraying enough emotions and psychopathy to give the characters plenty of depth. The set itself is beautiful, dark enough to give off a haunting atmosphere yet detailed enough that it keeps your attention. And they did not rely on a lot of flashy lights and stuff like that; just enough red and blue to keep the haunting atmosphere… well, haunting.

So for Wabash types that are reading this, go see Macbeth. For those of you that might come to Wabash, we’ve got cool stuff that you should go see. For those of you who can’t come to Wabash… ha ha.