Something Wicked Comes to the Black Box
By Grace Sweeney
Last Thursday, “Macbeth” opened at Elon after only 16 days of rehearsal. Director Kirby Wahl took one of William Shakespeare’s most popular plays and reinvented it with a surreal twist.
“One of the words I kept going back to was ‘phantasmagorical,’” said Wahl.
Instead of setting the play in the typical 11 century style, it takes place in a post-apocalyptic Scotland. The most interesting thing about Elon’s production of “Macbeth” is that the cast only had winter term to go from page to stage. Junior musical theatre major Chris Kalfas plays Macbeth, and said the time crunch was actually helpful for learning his part.
“You don’t have time to let your mind get in the way,” he said.
Wahl agrees. He said the style of Shakespearean writing can be easy to learn.
“Most actors think it’s easier to memorize,” he said.
Besides learning lines, Kalfas also had to learn how to fight. He enjoyed learning how to properly stage fight.
“It’s really cool to do this entire Shakespeare play and in the end just fight with swords,” Kalfas said.
“Macbeth” has a record for plaguing actors with accidents. But Wahl does not play into the superstition. He thinks the large amount of fight scenes could be the reason why people think the play is cursed.
“As soon as there’s an injury, every acting company falls back on saying ‘oh that’s because we’re doing the Scottish Play. No, you’re doing a play that requires violence,” Wahl said.
It looks like there’s no sign of a curse in this production, except maybe the 16-day rehearsal period.
Tags: Elon University, Phoenix14news, Grace Sweeney, Departmant of Performing Arts, Macbeth
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