Production Design:

In a production such as this one, finances are always a major factor in what you can and can’t do. However, financial constraint does not necessarily equal artistic constraint, and I often find that limited resources lead to greater creativity.

As this is a touring production we also have to be able to carry our set and props. about with us, and set them up in a short period of time in a variety of different spaces.

Macbeth moves so quickly from one scene to the next, and from one environment to another that it is almost impossible to design a set that could realistically suggest all of the different locations in the play. One minute we’re on a blasted heath, the next at the scene of a battle, and then in a great castle. The last few scenes particularly jump so quickly between an advancing army, Macbeth preparing for battle and Macduff searching for him. It reminded me of the end of a Star Wars film where the action moves between three individual stories that are all linked to the same goal. And, as in all the Star Wars films, the real focus of the end of the play is the fight, in the case of Macbeth between Macbeth and Macduff, and in the films between Darth Maul or Darth Vader and Qui Gon Jin, Obi Wan and/or Luke Skywalker.

But, of course, Shakespeare didn’t have this in mind when he wrote the play. It was written for the stage and when designing a production such as this one it is important not to try and emulate film techniques, but to use all the possibilities that the stage can offer.

I like to keep things as simple as possible and for this production it almost felt as if we needed nothing on stage except the actors. One of the reasons for keeping everything simple is to heighten the power of the language and the performances. It is the emotions of the people on stage that the audience should focus on, and a simple set design means that actors have to work harder to keep attention, and cannot rely on set and props. to help them engage the audience. The final set is almost as simple as could be. The flats have no decoration and are there principally to define the limits of the stage. The fact that the audience can see through them is intended to heighten the idea that the world beyond the stage and the events in the play are absolutely linked. The audience is watching the actors on stage, but also the world beyond, and the delineation between the two is so blurred as to be inconsequential. What happens in Macbeth happens in our world. What the characters on stage feel, we can, to a greater or lesser extent, also feel.

Design and direction are complimentary skills. In this production we have attempted to convey the feel of the piece through movement on stage and music. The movement is, at times, absolutely unrealistic - the intent not being to tell the audience what is going on, but to suggest a feeling to them. This happens in whole scenes, as in the case of the opening scene, or sometimes at brief periods within a scene. It has been said that theatre is painting, not photography, and in this painting of Macbeth there are definite touches of surreality - recognisable images and movements interspersed with unnatural reactions or highly stylised actions. The overall effect should be to unnerve and disturb the audience, to help them empathise with the feelings of the characters and of the situation.

The music is the final part of the design process, and, in my opinion, the most difficult part. This is especially true when you consider the notes that I first sent to our composer. Before auditions had even been organised and before the set design had been completed Colm (our composer) received this e-mail:-”As for the style of the piece, I have just discovered today that I am still not very good at describing it, although in my own head its quite clear. The best way, I suppose, is, and I know this sounds corny, a sort of Star Wars thing going on. Although its set in a foreign place a long, long time ago many of the references are modern.

The set is fairly abstract, with black flat frames covered in grey projection screens spread fairly randomly across the stage (I haven't actually got round to exact positionings yet - so we'll just have go with "fairly random" for now.) As for the music, I envisage something fairly epic but using modern instruments/sounds. Does that make any sense?” The answer should obviously have been, “No.”
With our composer in the Republic of Ireland we don’t have the luxury of hearing each step of the writing process. However, we are very lucky that Colm is a good friend of ours and, like any good friend, seems to have an intuitive understanding of what we are looking for.

This understanding goes to the point of composing pieces for parts of the play where I hadn’t envisaged a soundtrack. After several more phone conversations, several more fruitless attempts to define a style, and after hearing (and very much approving of) bits of the music over the telephone, a CD arrived. Colm’s notes arrived with the music and, as always, made me laugh while at the same time giving the advice necessary as how and where to use the tracks.

Track 3. Witches Theme
I played you this on the phone. This is for when the witches come in on Harley’s looking like rejects from Kiss. Or something. As you can see I have no idea. But I did want to write a piece that would be somewhat removed from what one might expect.

Track 5. Procession of the King
The piece we discussed on the phone. To reinforce the appearance of Macbeth as King. There is an extremely alternative version of this on track 10.

Track 6. Apparitions
I see dead people. For the middle of Act IV Scene I. And/or anywhere else haunting seems like a good idea.

Track 7. Sorrow
I wrote this to end the play. It might be possible to fade this up under Malcolm’s last speech. It is, however, a generically depressing piece of music and could possibly work elsewhere.

Track 10. Announcing the King
If the King should happen to be in New Orleans. See track 5 above.

Track 11. Ambience
Again, as you asked for. This is a combination of the following (identifying the elements could make an interesting party game): gong, chimes, dog, applause, train, bubble, heartbeat. Alone, they are all so much noise. Together they are a completely different noise. The dog wants royalties.Once the music had arrived everything was in place. It is then the job of the director to co-ordinate the music, set and the actors in order to create a production where all three elements work together.