Week Three Theatre Reflection

• How would you describe the venue (setting for the building, lobby, theatre space)?

It was set in multiple locations.  Macbeth moved us from outside in a garden to the inside of a church.  There were blog-like papermache sculptures in the garden.  I felt like I was in a mystical world.  I had never experienced a play in which you move around.  I think it made it that much more engaging and immersive.  The sets, props, and costumes showed signs of the artist’s hand.  I loved that they looked hand made.  

• How did the actual architecture/design of the space make you feel and/or affect your experience?

It was definitely very immersive.  I particularly liked the special effects of the audio that sounded like a battle scene.  It surround the walkway that funneled the crowd onto the next scene.  The fog, battlecries, and clashing of swords made me feel like I was in the thick of a war.  I feel like this could have been considered a 4D experience.  Another scene that really interested me was when we were filtered through a hazy bedroom.  I felt like I was in one of those dreams where I am watching the scene but not part of it.  Lady Macbeth was begging Macbeth to come to bed but he was deteriorating mentally at this point.

• Think about what you felt when you were “inside” the world of the play. Was there something there that you could call a “unifying vision” – where every element of the production came together to make something cohesive that clearly communicates important information about the play (including things like mood and feeling). What visual and aural elements contributed to or detracted from that vision?

I think the bedroom scene was very telling.  It’s so intimate, and it was one of the more completely furnished scenes.  In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are completely infatuated with each other, but here Macbeth is distracted and blinded by his own guilt.  He can’t even recognize the “love of his life.”  I think that it shows how murder really changed and affect Macbeth in such a way that it made him crazy.  Not even his love could save him from drowning.  However, one  could argue that she was a propelling force to his own demise…

• How did the production make you feel? What did it make you think about?

I felt immersed in the world of the play.  I was curious where we were going to be taken to next and how the set was going to look.  As the evening light faded into darkness it also  made the play that much more mysterious and intense.  I think that it made the world more real that the play was out in the garden.  They didn’t have to pretend that there was a forest or trees or a large door.  They were all physically there.  I remember sitting on the bench as McDuff stood right in front of me and thinking that this is what it must feel like to live inside a book.  The actors’ costumes and lighting made me feel like I was sitting in a grand hall and watching the altercation.

• What did you think about the actors? Was there one in particular that stood out in some way, or was this a play that relied on the ensemble of actors? What specifically did you notice that shaped your ideas about the acting?

Lady Macbeth was really interesting.  All of the actors had multiple roles, and she was one of the weird sisters.  The other two weird sisters had masks that completely covered their faces, but her’s was open so that you could see her face.  I think that this was symbolizing her fall into evil.  One of the first scenes was her hoping that she have courage to not go back on her murderous decision.  It sounded like she, Lady Macbeth, was enacting a curse upon herself.  The weird sister mask seemed to reveal the evil potential she held.