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Fall 2015 Mainstage: “Macbeth”

posted on December 23rd, 2015

Bianca Thompson '19, Ziggy Schulting '18, and Katie Jacobsen '18

Bianca Thompson ’19, Ziggy Schulting ’18, and Katie Jacobsen ’18

JKB Macbeth is Cinematic Shakespeare for the “Game of Thrones” Generation

By: Gabe Cohn ’16

Midway through Macbeth’s “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” soliloquy, which by this point in history has been referenced by figures ranging from William Faulkner to Lin-Manuel Miranda, the doomed now-king describes a melancholy life full of “sound and fury.” Like Faulkner, director Holly L. Derr has seemingly isolated the sentiment, creating a strong sense of atmosphere and foreboding with her production, which takes place on the mainstage of the Janet Kinghorn Bernard Theater.

This sense of atmosphere is felt in full force during the aforementioned speech, spoken here with controlled and understated intensity by Woodrow Proctor ’16. In one of the production’s signature moments, Proctor delivers the monologue lit only by a single beam of light concentrated on his face, as if peering through a large keyhole. Lighting Designer Jared Klein’s decision to present the speech in this way not only provides the audience with unexpected eye candy, but plays into what comes through as one of the production’s chief experiments: using technology to achieve an unprecedented sense of the supernatural.


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