First Bites Directors' Season

Rob Curry

Oval House Theatre

Stephen Nash

In what is effectively an actors' workshop, Rob Curry mused on the role of the witches in Macbeth. Instead of the finished product we are witnessing the embryonic stage of theatre production. The audience has been invited in at the stage where the director is testing out theories with the actors.

This did not prove a big draw with the punters, but it still made for a fascinating insight into the creative process. It helped that the play under discussion was Macbeth. Everyone in the theatre; director, actors and audience, were working with some pre-conceived notions.

Rob Curry's initial motivation sprang from dissatisfaction with previous productions of Macbeth and in particular the role of the three witches. His particular vision was to place the witches centre-stage. He envisioned a web of scaffolding over a central stage with the audience seated around and the witches appearing from above and below throughout the play. The dilemma is: do you make the witches supernatural or do you retain their corporeal presence?

The actors then rehearsed the same scene from Macbeth in two different ways. This is the famous start to the play. 'When shall we three meet again / In thunder, lightning or in rain?' The conventional rendering of this scene is counterposed to the more supernatural vision with the witches emerging from the ground. As an isloted piece the supernatural version has the greater force, but how do you incorporate it into the play as a whole. After each scene is played out Rob Curry shares his thoughts with the audience. He wants a dialogue with the actors and in this instance with the audience as well.

Are there other scenes where a supernatural vision would work? He tries out the scene with Lady Macbeth (Act 1 Scene V) 'Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty.' The actors seem to thrive on the more physical approach. All writhing bodies and sensuality. All of the scenes with the witches are played making you realise how little part they actually play. A discussion follows, largely led by the actors in which they try to work out who the witches were. Were they outcasts from society? Pagans rejected by the christian world who saw things that contemporary society had lost sight of? How could they predict the future? Was it prediction or an ability to say things that people wanted to hear and therefore partly responsible for their actions.

All of these musings would help the actors get a fix on the play and it was interesting to listen to their speculations. What worked for me as a member of the audience is that it got me interested in Macbeth. My view in re-reading the play is that none of it is supernatural and this is what gives it its terror. It is a work of imagination. The imagination is proleptic. Macbeth imagines the future and is driven to that goal regardless of the consequences. The witches add atmosphere but it would be difficult without re-writing the play to replace Macbeth's imagination as the central theme with an outside supernatural influence.

Such is the power of this imagination whatever its cause (Lady Macbeth, ambition or bloodlust) it is very tempting to seek a supernatural explanation. In many ways as with a lot of Shakespeare it requires a leap of imagination on behalf of the audience. It takes us into a part of our subconscious that goes beyond our own common sense understanding. Hence its terror. It was interesting and stimulating to listen in on one director's thought processes.

If ever Rob Curry manages to pull together a final version then I will be the first in the queue for tickets.

One off performance.

See the Culture Wars review of other First Bites shows here and here.

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