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Unseam’d Shakespeare : Macbeth 3
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/theater/s_628811.html
Linked because I dig the name of their company (“Unseam’d Shakespeare” – dancing on a dangerous line naming your theatre group with a line from the Scottish play!) as well as the name of the play, Macbeth 3. Not even 2? Where was 2?
It’s a typical theatre review, but I did find this piece ironic enough that it reads like an Onion article:
To emphasize the play's universal and eternal themes, director and fight coordinator Michael Hood chooses a timeless setting not tied to any geographical or ethnic location.
Now, see, there’s an original idea. :) [Note to the author of the article, you just wasted 26 words – it would have been more original, ala the Onion, to actually set Macbeth in the time and space Shakespeare intended. Unless you knew that and were deliberately padding to reach your word count in which case brilliant!]
3 comments:
"To emphasize the play's universal and eternal themes, director and fight coordinator Michael Hood chooses a timeless setting not tied to any geographical or ethnic location."
To finish the quote: "According to his director's notes, the setting is Hell."
Oh, I dunno, it seems to me as though HELL (although an undefined "where") might be known to be a fairly specific geographic place in the minds of most . --In fact, people have been known to suggest someone else's immediate departure on an excursion that, without a doubt, ends with the traveler having reached that specific destination. :)
Interesting that they added the character of "Satan" (although it makes me curious as to how it was written into the mix --again, as a specific element, definitely tied to a "place").
The kernel idea itself isn't new. Macbeth's "assistant" is named "Seyton" (pron. seeton). And every time Macbeth calls out to him--he says his name repeatedly, pressured by reactions to events in the latter part of the play--it can sound as though he's calling for help from Satan; this,especially, because of the dialectical accents of English pronunciation at the time. "See--ton" becomes "Seh--ton". Extending the two syllables in a call (at one point Shakespeare gives Macbeth a 4 syllable count to pronounce 2 ) makes it even more distinguishable.
What's really funny about this is that this Alice Carter just reviewed a production of a musical spoof of "Gone With the Wind" that I am involved in, and she completely missed the point of what a spoof is in her review.
...My point being that I liked your comment about her padding her article because I am sore from her comments about our show...thank you.
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