Macbeth: Shakespearean tragedy meets Robert Lepage

At a time when the news is glorifying the triumph of billionaire despots, Robert Lepage tackles the famous Scottish tragedy, which addresses overwhelming paranoia, political conspiracy and the bloody thirst for power. Coincidence? The medieval setting plays host to criminal biker gangs from 1990s Quebec in this grand reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s classic, whose ferocious beauty and dreadful curse remains untempered by time.

Cawdor Castle becomes a rural motel, and Birnam Wood looks like a cannabis field, but the original prophetic tale is left untouched. Consumed by ambition, military commander Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, commit a series of despicable crimes to ascend to the throne. Illusions, remorse and insanity clash in this endless night, where the blood of the murdered bubbles over the hands of the guilty and refuses to come clean. And those who flee must flee by motorboat or scooter instead of sailboat or horse!

At the height of his career, Robert Lepage faces destiny anew as he puts on the Scottish Play, whose name actors dare not speak in the wings, through Michel Garneau’s transcreation into the vernacular French. One thing, however, does not change: the remarkable clarity of Shakespeare’s gaze into humanity’s basest impulses.

The Québécois translation by Michel Garneau is performed in an abridged version in this production. The full version of this translation is published and available from Éditions Somme Toute.