“Macbeth: A Reimagining on the Streets”
Macbeth play on a stage on the back of a moving truck, replete with music, trees and smoke machines,
Saturday August 29 from 7pm to 9pm.
Departure at 7pm next to St. Viateur Parc, move through the streets of Mile End and end on Esplanade next to Jeanne-Mance Parc at 9pm.
Directed by Heather O’Neill
Written by Joe Bagel
Artistic Director Arizona O’Neill
Acted by Dakota Jamal, Heather O’Neill, Joe Bagel…
POP Montreal presents “Macbeth: A Reimagining on the Streets”,a grand, wild, shoe-string budget theatrical happening. It will be a mounting of the brutal play Macbeth on the back of a moving truck on which a stage, replete with music, trees and smoke machines, has been built. The stage will always be moving so audiences can emerge on their balconies and porches to view the spectacle while social distancing. Only the major scenes of the play will be re-enacted, so each audience member will find themselves in the climax of the action of this iconic play. These scenes have been entirely rewritten in modern language to include contemporary themes and explosive humour.
The main players will be Dakota Jamalas Lady Macbeth. Jamal is a brilliant actor who has appeared in the films of Xavier Dolan and has been on numerous stages. It has been his dream to play Lady Macbeth for many years. He will bring his own elegance and sensitivity to the role.
Joe Bagel is an actor, writer and provocateur, notable for having staged a play about Elon Musk at the pornographic theatre Cinema L’Amour at the POP Montreal festival last year. He will put his rock and roll spin on the hysterical, unhinged Macbeth.
Acclaimed Montreal writer Heather O’Neill, who is also the director, will be playing one of the Weird Sisters herself. There will be a parade of witches on bicycles and other odd means of transport surrounding the truck.
The magnificent truck and costumes and decor will be created by our artistic director, Montreal artist and filmmaker, Arizona O’Neill.
The play will move through the streets of theMile Endand Plateau, engaging and reacting to audiences as they come out to hoot and holler and provoke and laugh. It will begin at 7pm next to St. Viateur Parc, move through the streets of Mile End and end on Esplanade next to Jeanne-Mance Parc at 9pm.
“We felt a desperate need to perform live before this hard summer was over. Shakespeare himself lived through three plagues and was no stranger to theatres being shuttered. During these times he wrote plays and performed outside typical theatrical venues. In this spirit our play will recreate the roving nature of a Renaissance theatrical troupe. We have chosen Macbeth because of its claustrophobia and also as a means to explore its feminist elements. We were interested in the role of Lady Macbeth and how she has become a pejorative term for ambitious women. We are also interested in the role of witches in Shakespeare’s time and throughout history and the role they have played in prophesizing and speaking strange truths.
The play will be part clown show, part performance art. It will be street theatre at its best. It is the perfect time for a Shakespeare play to find a way to be recreated in these times of pandemic. We are eschewing the large budgets that hamper the meaning of Shakespeare and returning it to its punk rock survivalist roots.”
