Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Fordham University, April 11 - 21 2018
Director: Dawn Akemi Saito. Sets: Kai Brothers. Lighting: Elizabeth Mak.
Costumes: Becky Bodurtha. Sound: David van Tieghem.
Photography: Joey Moro & Edward T. Morris.
This particular Macbeth directed and choreographed by Dawn Akemi Saito at Fordham University is quite unlike any other Macbeth I'd ever seen before. Inspired by the stylisation and minimalism of butoh, Dawn (who is a lecturer in physical theater) and Kai created an environment of fabric panels against a black void. These panels were made of two layers each, one stretchy and one sheer, that were used in a myriad of ways through the play. Sometimes, they formed a womb-like oval, another time the world of the court, another time Duncan's bedroom. Ripped down, they were veils for the ghosts, and suffocation devices for Macduff's family. Dawn also added a controversial prologue to the piece, seen above, in a serious of tableaus that show Macbeth and Lady M having and then losing a child before we enter into the piece proper. In doing so, Dawn was eliciting sympathy for the tyrants who set themselves above us, reminding us that they are people too.
We have scorched the snake, not killed it.
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass which shows me many more
Birnam woods