ABU DHABI: Macbeth is visiting town, sans the elaborate sets and periodic drama. The contemporary version – a unique all-female cast production set in the UAE – provides an immersive theatrical experience with multiple scenes being enacted simultaneously and the audience free to roam around and interact with the actors.
Produced by the UAE Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development in partnership with the British Council, the show is part of the cultural collaboration programme between the UAE and the UK being held throughout 2017.
Over the last three weeks, the production has reached multiple communities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and will be featured in Ajman Cultural Centre on April 28–29. There will be dedicated sessions for schools and at the British Council Teaching Centres at 6pm on May 1 in Abu Dhabi and May 2 in Dubai.
Yasser Al Gergawi, director of events department at the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, said the interactive nature of the play is aimed at communicating with the audience.
“The audience will get to watch the actors from up close and almost ‘feel’ the character. This is a new kind of theatre in the Arab world,” he says.
Do the actors get distracted by the close interaction? “Sometimes,” says Gergawi. “But they are well trained to handle it.”
Artistic director of the play, Liz Hadaway, says her task is to make the play appeal to a demanding audience. “We aim to draw the audience, utilising all of their senses – sight, sound, touch, feel etc. This is a multi-sensory experience, an adventure into the unknown. Each audience member will emerge with a different perspective on the production,” says Hadaway.
Gavin Anderson, Country Director of the British Council UAE, says creativity and innovation are at the heart of the cultural collaboration programme. “This unique all-female cast production will bring audiences and performers together, creating new perspectives around their experiences.”
Women power
Training a multinational cast in a new premise has been both thrilling and challenging for Hadaway. “Originally, Macbeth would have been played by an all-male cast, so to turn it on its head was an interesting twist,” she says. “Set in the UAE’s corporate, the play shows how much power women have here and the vital roles they play in corporations and government. It is an interesting dynamic.”
Fight director Allison Williams, who also plays Macbeth, says: “People often think of women as weak physical fighters, but even without brute strength we get a lot trickier.
“We’ve come up with creative ways to handle the deaths of the Macduff family, and a very bloody, supernatural end for Ban-quo.”
Venetia Tiarks-Clark who plays Lady Macbeth was apprehensive about her role as it was one of the few characters by the Bard she wasn’t very familiar with.
“Doing the role of a woman as fierce, strong and in-control as Lady Macbeth meant I needed to be at the peak of both my psychological and physical condition. So I undertook a rigorous programme of physical training, mind-body techniques and went on a strict diet. I can safely say this is the most challenging role I have ever done, and one that has left a huge imprint on my every waking moment.”
Learning Shakespearean English was a challenge for Emirati Hanan Alshabebi who plays one of the witches. “But the way Liz has developed the role, the witches could be in any part of the world, in any situation. I even spoke the dialogues in Arabic occasionally.”
