Macbeth 2008

Foul Is Fur! Open-Air Macbeth, with Giant Bunny

by John Heilpern
Jul. 1st, 2008, 10:50 am
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Grzegorz Jarzyna’s <i>Macbeth 2008</i>, a TR Warszawa production staged in a roofless tobacco factory near St. Ann’s Warehouse.
Grzegorz Jarzyna’s Macbeth 2008, a TR Warszawa production staged in a roofless tobacco factory near St. Ann’s Warehouse.

Notes for and against Macbeth 2008, directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna, hailed by some as a theater visionary:

I think the avant-garde Polish director should have given his contemporary take on Shakespeare’s tragedy a different title.

Throne of Blood, Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 masterpiece, is famously based on Macbeth, but its title takes us directly into another world. Set in medieval Japan, the movie uses very little of Shakespeare’s language. Mr. Jarzyna’s Macbeth 2008, which has been compared to watching a movie onstage, is set in a blood-soaked U.S. war zone, and the director rarely uses Shakespeare’s language either. But his title links this production too closely to the original play, and sets up unfounded expectations.  read more »