In my production of "Macbeth" I imagine coming into the theatre from the bar and sitting down feeling excited. I've imagined my audience be unfamiliar with Shakespeare and quite young. Suddenly, the lights go off and you hear the rumbling of thunder, then lightning strikes and the production has my attention and I am buzzing with anticipation.
The props on stage give the impression of an alley, in the middle of the stage is a big metal drum with rusty coloured, billowing fabric giving the illusion of fire.
My witches appear on stage; they are three attractive, young looking women, they are wearing short black skirts, knee high boots and dark purple flowing tops. They have shadowy make-up around their eyes and dark lips; they have an unhealthy pallor. They are starkly modern yet have an aura of menace, their appearance sends a shiver down my spine, and I feel nervous.
With my witches I have broken the stereotype. Instead of being old and ugly my witches are young and harshly modern. I decided to cast the in this way because I felt that young and attractive women would be more alluring, strong, mysterious and overpowering and above all, menacing, whereas the stereotypical portrayal of witches as old, ugly women can sometimes verge on caricature. Also the witches in the play are supposed to represent temptation and I thought that the characters would be more likely to believe them if they were attractive.
Suddenly the theatre erupts in a cacophony of noise; I can hear sirens, screeching tires, awful, strangely inhuman cries, the backdrop screen is flashing with metallic grey explosions and strobe lights fix on the shocked faces of the audience. Something terrible has obviously happened. The theatre is plunged into silence, the backdrop screen shows magnified images of the witch's faces, they are massively grotesque and their expressions convey malicious satisfaction. Whatever the awful incident, the audience is in no doubt that the witches bear the responsibility for it.
