Education Resource

AUSTRALIA DRAMA HECATE YIRRA YAAKIN THEATRE COMPANY Presented in association with Bell Shakespeare EDUCATION RESOURCE Image: Eva Fernandez 1 7 February - 1 March CONTENTS 2 Synopsis 2 Credits 3 Biographies 4 About the Performance 4 Major Themes 4 Resources 5 Before the Show 7 After the Show 10 Specific Links to Curriculum 11 Appendix Perth Festival respects the Noongar people who remain the spiritual and cultural birdiyangara of this kwobidak boodjar. We honour the significant role they play for our community and our Festival to flourish. CREDITS SYNOPSIS Director & Adaptor Kylie Bracknell [Kaarljilba Kaardn] The play begins with the brief appearance of a trio of witches and then moves to a military camp, where the Scottish King Duncan hears the news that his Translators Kylie Bracknell & Dr Clint Bracknell generals, Macbeth and Banquo, have defeated two separate invading armies – Editor & Senior Language Consultant one from Ireland, led by the rebel MacDonald, and one from Norway. Following Roma Yibiyung Winmar their pitched battle with these enemy forces, Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches as they cross a moor. The witches prophesy that Macbeth will Cultural Consultants Judy Bone & Mitchella Hutchins be made Thane (a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King of Set & Costume Designer Zoë Atkinson Scotland. They also prophesy that Macbeth’s companion, Banquo, will beget a line of Scottish kings, although Banquo will never be king himself. The witches Lighting Designer Mark Howett vanish, and Macbeth and Banquo treat their prophecies sceptically until some Composer, Musical Director & Sound Designer of King Duncan’s men come to thank the two generals for their victories in battle and to tell Macbeth that he has indeed been named Thane of Cawdor. Dr Clint Bracknell The previous thane betrayed Scotland by fighting for the Norwegians and Movement Director Janine Oxenham Duncan has condemned him to death. Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility that the remainder of the witches’ prophecy – that he will be crowned Kate Mulvany Dramaturg king – might be true, but he is uncertain what to expect. He visits with King Stage Manager Sue Fenty Duncan, and they plan to dine together at Inverness, Macbeth’s castle, that night. Macbeth writes ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her all that has Bell Shakespeare Consultants & Associate Directors happened. James Evans & Peter Evans Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husband’s uncertainty. She desires the Cast Cezera Critti-Schnaars, Bobbi Henry, Della Rae kingship for him and wants him to murder Duncan in order to obtain it. When Morrison, Kyle J Morrison, Mark Nannup, Trevor Ryan, Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she overrides her husband’s objections and Maitland Schnaars, Ian Wilkes, Rubeun Yorkshire persuades him to kill the king that very night. He and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncan’s two chamberlains drunk so they will black out; the next morning they will blame the murder on the chamberlains, who will be defenceless, as they will remember nothing. While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and a number of supernatural portents, including a vision of a bloody dagger. When Duncan’s death is discovered the next morning, Macbeth kills the chamberlains – ostensibly out of rage at their crime – and easily assumes the kingship. Duncan’s sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to England and Ireland, respectively, fearing that whoever killed Duncan desires their demise as well. Fearful of the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs will seize the throne, Macbeth hires a group of murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. They ambush Banquo on his way to a royal feast, but they fail to kill Fleance, who escapes into the night. Macbeth becomes furious: as long as Fleance is alive, he fears that his power remains insecure. At the feast that night, Banquo’s ghost visits Macbeth. When he sees the ghost, Macbeth raves fearfully, startling his guests, who include most of the great Scottish nobility. Lady Macbeth tries to neutralise the damage, but Macbeth’s kingship incites increasing resistance from his nobles and subjects. Frightened, Macbeth goes to visit the witches in their cavern. There, they show him a sequence of demons and spirits who present him with further prophecies: he must beware of Macduff, a Scottish nobleman who opposed Macbeth’s accession to the throne; he is incapable of being harmed by any man born of woman; and he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth is relieved and feels secure, because he knows that all men are born of women and that forests cannot move. When he learns that Macduff has fled to England to join Malcolm, Macbeth orders that Macduff’s castle be seized and, most cruelly, that Lady Macduff and her children be murdered. When news of his family’s execution reaches Macduff in England, he is stricken with grief and vows revenge. Prince Malcolm, Duncan’s son, has succeeded in raising an army in England, and Macduff joins him as he rides to Scotland to challenge Macbeth’s forces. The invasion has the support of the Scottish nobles, who are appalled and frightened by Macbeth’s tyrannical and murderous behaviour. Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, becomes plagued with fits of sleepwalking in which she bemoans what she believes to be bloodstains on her hands. Before Macbeth’s opponents arrive, Macbeth receives news that she has killed herself, causing him to sink into a deep and pessimistic despair. Nevertheless, he awaits the English and fortifies Dunsinane, to which he seems to have withdrawn in order to defend himself, certain that the witches’ prophecies guarantee his invincibility. He is struck numb with fear, however, when he learns that the English army is advancing on Dunsinane shielded with boughs cut from Birnam Wood. Birnam Wood is indeed coming to Dunsinane, fulfilling half of the witches’ prophecy. In the battle, Macbeth hews violently, but the English forces gradually overwhelm his army and castle. On the battlefield, Macbeth encounters the vengeful Macduff, who declares that he was not “of woman born” but was instead “untimely ripped” from his mother’s womb (what we now call birth by caesarean section). Though he realises that he is doomed, Macbeth continues to fight until Macduff kills and beheads him. Malcolm, now the King of Scotland, declares his benevolent intentions for the country and invites all to see him crowned at Scone. 2 BIOGRAPHIES KYLIE BRACKNELL (KAARLIJILBA KAARDN) KATE MULVANY DIRECTOR, ADAPTOR & TRANSLATOR DRAMATURG Kylie Bracknell [Kaarljilba Kaardn] is an Aboriginal Australian actor, Kate Mulvany is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. In writer, TV presenter and theatre director from the south west 2018 her adaptation of Ruth Park’s acclaimed novel The Harp in the of Western Australia – the Noongar nation. As an actor, she has South premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company to much acclaim appeared in television programs such as The Gods Of Wheat and won the award Best New Australian Work at the Sydney Theatre Street and Redfern Now, films including Ace Of Spades, Stone Awards. In 2017 her AWGIE-nominated play The Rasputin Affair was Bros and SA Black Thing and theatre productions Black is the New produced at the Ensemble Theatre. Her adaptation of Craig Silvey’s White, The Sapphires, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The White Jasper Jones recently opened at the QTC after being produced at Divers Of Broome, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo And Belvoir Street Theatre and the MTC, in two separate productions Juliet, One Day In ‘67, King Hit and Aliwa. following its Barking Gecko premiere in 2015 and has enjoyed great success. In 2015 Mulvany’s play Masquerade, a reimagining of the Bracknell directed Windmill Baby as associate artist at Belvoir much-loved children’s book by Kit Williams, was co-produced by Street Theatre and has served as assistant director on short film the Griffin Theatre Company and the STCSA and performed at the and theatre productions. She was also co-artistic director for Sydney Opera House for 2015 Sydney Festival and the State Theatre the large-scale Welcome To Country event as a part of the 2006 Company of South Australia as well as for Melbourne Festival. Perth International Arts Festival. She co-wrote the short film Main Her autobiographical play The Seed, (Belvoir Street Theatre) won Actors and has translated selected Shakespearean sonnets into the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Production. Her the Noongar language for a performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Medea, co-written with Anne-Louise Sarks, having been produced in London as part of their ‘Globe to Globe’ festival (2012). by Belvoir Street Theatre in 2012, won several awards including Bracknell has coordinated and managed a variety of theatre, an AWGIE and five Sydney Theatre Awards, and has gone on to be film and television, and radio industry programs. She was senior produced in Poland, the Gate Theatre in London and most recently workshop leader for Yirra Yaakin’s ‘Sonnets in Noongar’ schools in 2018 Basel, Switzerland, to rave reviews. Other plays and musicals program, script and acting coach for ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, include; The Danger Age, Blood and Bone, The Web, Somewhere program manager of the Media and Screen Industry Indigenous (co-written with Tim Minchin for the Joan Sutherland PAC) and Employment Program for Screen Australia and manager of the Storytime, which won Mulvany the 2004 Philip Parsons Award. She Indigenous department at AFTRS. is also an award-winning stage and screen actor with credits with many of the major Sydney theatre companies and in many television dramas and films. DR CLINT BRACKNELL TRANSLATOR, SOUND DESIGNER & COMPOSER Dr Clint Bracknell is a musician, songwriter and ethnomusicologist from the Wirlomin clan of the Noongar nation of the south- east coast of WA.

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