Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival continues to bring brilliant entertainment to Vanier Park for its 34th Season with the fan-favourite Bard/Beatles collaboration in As You Like It and the dramatic Julius Caesar in repertoire on the Main Stage. On The Howard Family Stage Henry V continues until August 13th, when the King makes way for Goblins!
Goblin:Macbeth takes over the Howard Family Stage from August 19 to September 17. Directed by Rebecca Northan, Goblin:Macbeth is a theatre event like no other, inviting audiences on a 90 minute theatrical rollercoaster ride hosted by three rogue Goblins who bring mayhem and wickedness to the Bard Stage.
When three Goblins come across a copy of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, they are intrigued by a writer who clearly knows his witches, faeries, goblins and monsters. They decide to co-opt a theatre space and cajole an audience into participating in their first attempt at “doing theatre”.
Choosing Macbeth because it’s short…and has lots of blood…prepare for a one-of-a-kind experience as this troupe of Goblins put on a mischievously interactive production.
“I have a profound love of words, as well as a background in mask work, improvisation and misbehaviour, so the idea of Goblins doing Shakespeare seemed obvious to me,” says director and co-creator Rebecca Northan. “To the Goblins, Macbeth is not Shakespeare’s most unsettling and cursed play – they already come from a world where fairies, ghosts, witches and magic are pedestrian. Our Goblins are able to push past all that phantasmagoria to highlight a humour that is so often glossed over in human productions that favour a macabre atmosphere. Our Goblins reveal that to pair tragedy with humour, as Shakespeare intended, is a profoundly human impulse that highlights the horror, while allowing us to bear it. I actively discourage you from seeking out the identity of our players. Let the Goblins work their magic on you; let the play hit you in new ways.”
Goblin:Macbeth takes over Bard on the Beach’s Howard Family Stage from August 19 to September 17, 2023. Tickets are on sale now, and selling fast, at bardonthebeach.org. Vocal Eye performance is September 10. Content Advisory: Offstage murder, strong language, violence