Notes on Macbeth

Macbeth the Butcher and his Fiend-like Queen - the most infamous killer couple in history. The poetic beauty and repellent horror of Shakespeare's nihilistic tragedy are central to this production of erotic and claustrophobic intensity. A reflection and parody of the surreal theatre staged within the fragmented and disintegrating minds of the killers as they descend further into the slaughterhouse of their own madness. 'Blood will have blood in this requiem duet for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as they seek absolution for their fractured souls. Nigel Charnock and Volcano's Macbeth dissects the Faustian temptation which launches the protagonists on their tyrannical journey of mutual self-destruction.

Macbeth is generally seen as a great tragedy play. A hero's fall from grace, a Faustian temptation and a battle (dare I say it, a Christian battle) between good and evil. The Macbeth you see before you this evening is rather different. We have drawn on the recent terrible case of the serial killers Fred and Rose West. Their crimes were sexual, they killed young women - even members of their own family. They had none of the grandiose ambition of the Macbeths but all of the unhinged, competitive madness. In place of a royal tragedy and a narrative morality tale we are seeking to explore Hannah Arendt's famous description of the 'banality of evil'. In place of the castles of Scotland you have the video images of kitchens and bedrooms - violence is everywhere because it comes from everywhere. Suburban England is as much a breeding ground for evil as is any 17th century battlefield. In the Macbeth you see tonight there is no triumph of reason (or England represented by Malcolm and MacDuff in the original). Lady Macbeth does not die, Macbeth is not killed - evil goes on it takes new and different forms. We live in bloody times, and it might be better to see that the origin of this blood lust lies within ourselves rather than within some 'black and midnight hags'. It is in this sense then that we offer you our humanist version of Macbeth.

Volcano is a national and international touring theatre company, funded by the Arts Council of Wales to produce experimental work. Macbeth has already played at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada and in three cities in Switzerland. There are also plans for the show to go to Greece, Poland and Germany.

Macbeth is, by any stretch of the imagination, a bloody play. We live in bloody times. This is not a classical representation of Shakespeare's Macbeth (although I am not sure how even a classical version could avoid the blood and the violence). It is an interpretation of the play informed by the terrors that impinge on our daily lives. (To paraphrase Foucault evil is everywhere because it comes from everywhere). The play Macbeth may be studied in a literary fashion - but this is theatre. And the theatre produced by Volcano engages with our contemporary horrors - it does not ignore them or imagine they are played out in the reading room of the British Museum.

One of the tasks of theatre at the end of the millenium is to act as a contentious forum - a place where expectations are challenged, even destroyed. A dynamic culture is always shifting, slipping beyond the gaze and the grasp of those who, like taxidermists, would stuff, shelve and label the contents of our imagination. Macbeth is disturbing. Murder always is. Leaving the theatre is always an option. Taxidermists are open. They keep a warm welcome. Contrary to reports the trade flourishes in many places and in many forms. A word of advice though: don't stand still. These craftsman have been known to stuff more than the odd raven, hoarse or otherwise ...

Paul Davies