9/6 (Fri) - Macbeth

On Friday, September 6^th, my friends and I signed up and went to the Shakespeare play directed by Irwin Appel, who was the guest speaker from last week’s INT 95 lecture, at Hatlen Theater. My friends and I arrived at the theater at 6:40, and the theater was filled with people already. I took a flyer on my way in to the theater. I was surprised that many of the audiences were not UCSB students, but adults living close by. I was very glad that FSSP gave us the opportunity to watch this play for free and before other UCSB students.

I found the flyer to be very helpful for me to understand the play. My high school had us read Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Hamlet, but not Macbeth. I had always enjoyed reading Shakespeare’s work, so I was really excited to watch the play.

At the beginning of the show, I was actually scared by the creepy and mysterious laughs from the actresses. Their facial expression was so frightening, but I assumed that it also meant that they were really into the play. Even though the actor and actresses had minimal props, the play was very engaging and understandable. The play probably would not be as successful, if the focuses on the actor and actresses were shifted away to the customs and props. The way that the play was presented was successful and stunning. The only reason that I thought students would not enjoy the show was that they do not know much about the story.

Some of my friends felt sleepy during the play, because they could not understand what was going on. During the intermission, I told them the summary and some important details of Macbeth that I had read online before going to the play. They all seemed to be more interested in the second part of the play.