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*Is this your first production of Macbeth?

Yes

* Why was it given the title A Macbeth and what do you hope to achieve in this particular production?

The reason for this production is, in part, to appeal to Stony Brook student audiences. It is an attempt to make Shakespeare accessible to a media culture, and therefore will speak in that vernacular.

This means we will be cutting the play, using projections to substitute for certain scenes, take the play out of its "Scottish" context. The words will still be Shakespeare's and the story will be recognizable, but I don't want people to come to the play expecting to see a faithful rendition of Shakespeare's text, because it won't be that. It will be ninety minutes without intermission, heavy on the sex and violence, without being "R" rated.

*I understand that you wish to include technology in this production - Can you share some of your ideas with us.

Two ideas are in the forefront.

The witches: rather than have some "hags" on stage, I want to see if we can make them ethereal and bigger than life. I would like them projected on plexiglass in front of the stage and have it pass through onto the scrim at the back -- the characters will be surrounded by the witches.

The second is the murder of MacDuff's family. Rather than have the long scene in which it happens onstage, is to film it and project it while MacDuff hears about it -- his imagining of the event as he learns about it.

*If you are planning on modernising and adapting Shakespeare's Macbeth, why not rather use a contemporary play that contains a similar message?

There is no substitute for Shakespeare. Because of his language and the majesty of his characters. As Mnouchkine says, his characters are "men-gods." People don't write about people like this any more. We've lost the imagination to create such scope.

*Why did you choose Macbeth - ie does the play speak to you personally?

A source of my doing Macbeth is the movie The Matrix. It is a movie, from my point of view, about revolution, i.e. the need to overthrow a repressive regime. Or, in the case of the movie, the need to subvert a society that alienates people from themselves. Despite its dependence on technology, it is a call to a reality outside of images, of simulacra. So I began to see Macbeth as someone who is trying to oust a regime that represents a dying society. One generation replacing an older one; a male desire to kill the father (to use an Oedipal image). What happens, however, is that Macbeth does not change anything, he merely replaces, becomes the father (to continue that metaphor -- although it is interesting that he is not a father).

So the question becomes one of what is a revolution -- does it change anything or is it what the term denotes, a return to a starting point as in completing one revolution of a wheel.

There is a desire, a need for change, but the question is with what are we going to replace what we want to change? Macbeth's generation is then replaced by the younger Malcolm (at least that is how I am seeing it).

Does Malcolm offer anything different? No, just another generation repeating the mistakes of the previous generation.

*What do you think is the play's strongest message?

I think the above answers this question as well, but I would add the cost of revolution, particularly one that fails as Macbeth's does (if we can claim it is a revolution) -- the cost in human life and love. What he does to the people he kills and the demise of Lady Macbeth must cause us to question what price we are willing to pay for change.

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SUNY - Stony Brook

Theater Department, SUNY Stony Brook