In May 2014, three Wisconsin girls walked into the woods. Twelve years old, they went out for a walk after a sleepover. When they reached the woods, the birthday girl stabbed her best friend nineteen times. They intended the murder to be a blood sacrifice to a fictional internet character known as Slender Man. This macabre tale is one of the inspirations for Director Erica Schmidt’s unforgettable version of Macbeth.
In another notorious murder, two teenage girls who had dreamed up an elaborate fantasy world were about to become separated. They beat one of their mothers to death during a walk in the woods. Preteen girls emerged from the woods in Salem back in 1692 having seen witches and devils. One of the Slender Man girls was eventually diagnosed with a psychological disorder called “shared delusional belief.” An obsession with the occult coupled with the strong bonds of fantasy and isolation shared by teenage girls has resulted in unspeakable horrors.
That shared charge between these awful teenage girls and the witches in Macbeth stoked the imagination of Ms. Schmidt. Shakespeare’s witches have occult visions in the wilderness. What if seven teenage girls meet up after school and find themselves carried away by Shakespeare’s words?
From the program notes, the director even heard echoes between the bard’s fictional words and frighteningly real language. Lady Macbeth has a line, “one, two, why then, ’tis time to do’t.” A West Virginia girl posted on Twitter that “we really did go on three” after she and another girl stabbed their friend in 2012.
Dressed in school uniforms, this Macbeth is both extraordinarily violent and bizarrely hilarious. The girls are partying in the woods with wine in their red solo cups. The language is updated: “bow down, bitches.” School references are thrown in: “thou art the best of the cutthroats” and “where did you get that, the science lab?” Malcolm says “Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up/ The cistern of my lust, and my desire.” Our young lady adds in her droll editorial, “it is too much.”
The audience reactions are varied to this vividly realized nightmare. Some seemed repulsed by the gleeful gore. Some found the proceedings shockingly hilarious. I landed in both camps. Ms. Schmidt accomplished her mission. Her Macbeth is all the more gruesome and disturbing when filtered through the exaggerated lens of real events. Stabbings as fun (or what you will).
The seven young actresses are incredibly effective and fully committed to this mad vision. This is clearly a Macbeth for those who know the play. Clocking in at just over ninety minutes (and perhaps appropriate for a generation raised on Spark Notes), the words fly out with extreme speed. Much of the time they feel rushed on the way to the next grotesquerie. In between some of those moments, I was slightly bored. This version exists for its outrageous style not its nuanced storytelling.
Featuring the famous line “out, damned spot,” Macbeth is considered a tragedy. When put through the sinister lens of mean girls gone bloody, this production amps up the tragic to cataclysmic levels. Savagery is everywhere. Even delusional schoolgirls are susceptible to our species most detestable impulses. Our entertainments keep getting more and more violent. All the world’s a stage, I guess.
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