MCBTH

The dark side

In MCBTH, director Guy Cassiers continues his ‘anatomy of power’. Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest and darkest plays. But Macbeth is also one of the most poetic, verbal and imaginative characters Shakespeare ever created. His dramatic introspection is a razor-sharp analysis of how someone is drawn into his dark side, becomes hopelessly lost and then drags down a whole world with him into his own destruction. The aim of MCBTH is to go to the very essence of the play. By drastically reducing the number of characters Guy Cassiers focuses on the figure of Macbeth and those closest to him.    

In recent years music and singing have played an increasingly important role in Cassiers’ productions. Together with composer Dominique Pauwels – who composed the music and songs for the highly acclaimed Bloed & rozen. Het lied van Jeanne en Gilles – Cassiers takes a new step in MCBTH: music and song no longer simply accompany the dramatic action but become a part of it. Music and song become co-players. They represent the constant shift between reality and hallucination. The actors are joined by singers. Music and song lay bare a dimension that in speaking remains hidden and suppressed. Cassiers also evokes this tension using the contrast between the physical presence of the actors and the materiality of the scenery on the one hand, and the 'immateriality' of image projection on the other. Through the intense interaction of word, image and music, MCBTH tries to reveal something of the cruel poetry that is essential to the play.