Out, Out of Damned Lerner Party Space

A production of Shakespeare's Macbeth by Columbia students promises to be different from every production you've seen before. It debuted at Columbia's Party Space in early March, and tonight the show moves off-Broadway to the Chashama Theater on West 42nd Street.

Darragh Martin, GSAS '10, and Abby Broberg, CC '08, are co-directing the show. The Irish-born Martin is researching Macbeth (his favorite play) and music as a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia. He met Broberg at last semester's King's Crown Shakespeare Troupe production of Bobrauschenbergamerica. Martin acted as Becker the Filthy Derelict, and Broberg co-directed.

Their decision to work on this play was simple, according to Broberg: "Darragh came to me and said, 'I want it all to be about dirt and the witches to be bald.'" She didn't need any more convincing. Though the bald witches didn't work out (none of the female actors were willing to shave their heads), Broberg is thrilled about their collaboration.

Their production promises to take Macbeth to new-and darker-depths. The witches serve as "scavengers of sadness in a battlefield," according to Martin. "They are eternal observers of violence and not really causing it. They have no control over what happens," he added. Also, there is a greater focus on every character in the play: all the actors are onstage during the whole show so that you notice everyone, "including the ones whose name you forgot," said Martin.

The witches are onstage for the duration of the play, making sounds and playing with dirt, which required some dirty work on the part of the directors. During the production setup, Broberg said, "You could find us behind Butler or in front of Furnald shoving dirt into a dust pan."

Martin added that they could also be found "at midnight at Central Park collecting leaves and branches."

Their goal was to tell Shakespeare's story as simply as possibly. The production focuses on how people react differently to violence. "We wanted to make it relevant and politically charged," said Martin. "People aren't just victims or murderers."

"Everyone's hands are bloody," added Broberg. She clarified, though, that they've removed any physical blood from the production except for one scene.

"I wanted all to be suggested by words, bare words. We're so saturated with graphic violence," explained Martin.

There will also be an exhibition with artwork, music, and collages in front of the house area. Created and submitted by members of Postcrypt, Potluck House, and Men Against Violence, the exhibition is meant to show many different perspectives on violence. "It's a way to relate Macbeth, a show in medieval Scotland, to violence today," explained Martin.

Though they hope to make Macbeth relevant, they do not plan on pushing any political agenda. "We want to give people the opportunity to make their own parallels. It's very important not to make it a leftist or rightist Macbeth," Martin said.

But putting on the spooky play doesn't come without some blood, er, hard work. There's a myth that Macbeth is cursed. One is not supposed to even say the word "Macbeth" in the theater. That explains why Broberg's and Martin's e-mails refer to the production as "scottishplay."

There was only one incident of the Macbeth curse during their rehearsal: "I got stabbed in the knee," said Martin. "I was getting stitches during the tech rehearsal." The incident, though, apparently reinforced the strength of the cast. "The tech rehearsal went so smoothly," he adds.

And there are no worries about filling the house. "We already have reservations," said Broberg. "And someone once told me that Shakespeare does his own publicity. He has a built-in fan base."