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Butoh Macbeth
Nov. 15th, 2007 12:01 amI mentioned sometime earier this semester that the campus theatre program was doing a Butoh style performance of Macbeth, right?
Well I saw it tonight :) Most of the general talking was regular style, but there was a lot of creative Butoh stuff in it.
And now I know how to properly describe it. It has often been referred to as "the study of dead bodies floating in space". That's paaart of it, but since half of the play the people weren't dead, I'd like to mix that definition with "abstract interperative dance with dangling".
Basically the best example would be the spirits in the play. Originally they were witches or something, I believe? And they only appeared a few times in the original? Well in this one there were a whole group of spirits, all dressed in and painted white, and the whole time they were hanging in various poses from a half-money bars style object that also acted as a house on the set. When they weren't lying on the bars, they were swinging around slowly and gracefully, and crawling around them, and sometimes they would come down and crawl around briefly. In fact in the very beginning of the play they were lying out like an orgy, they they did that cool "rise up while sitting on your knees and lying back" thing that I envy people for their skill in, and then they climbed up onto the bars.
Another good Butoh style thing, was there were three doors, which were often opened to reveal dead bodies; the character drenched in blood and standing limp like a corpse.
Anyway, what I REALLY liked about this production, especially after asking Jessica about it since I've never seen or read the original (sad to say XD), was that the spirits who are only supposed to be in it twice, were a PART of the entire play; when they weren't speaking they were watching, and when the lights went out the back of the stage was lit so you could see their silhouettes. They often echoed other character's lines, or hissed or moaned or laughed at the things happening, including screaming to wake the others after the first murders. They sometimes reached out to try to touch the characters. They were the ones who dangled daggers tauntingly in front of Macbeth (during the "is this the dagger I see before me?" monologue), and they even poured blood on characters as they died, which TOTALLY caught me off guard the first time it happened and it was AMAZING.
My other favorite thing was the lighting; they had an INCREDIBLE lightning effect, and everything else that wasn't visibility lighting was colored lighting, which not only made the spirits look amazing with the different colors on their pure-whiteness, but also effected the mood. What stuck out most for me in that regard was when we first see Lady Macbeth and Macbeth together, and they're making out and being super lusty, and when it first starts, as the spirits shift and moan, the lights which had been fairly neutral at the time turned a reddish pink color.
They also had puppets manned by four people at once for the children in the play, which was...creepily cool :3
not bad for a first time, eh? ^^ I love this school's theatre program.
In other news about tonight, I saw Mrs. McCary from high school there! She apparently transferred to teach at another school and was also really excited about this.
AND! I got to hang out with Jessica and her boyfriend during and after the show. And when mom and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dcseain picked me up, they asked about them, and Seain said that Jessica looked like fun, and mom agreed. Good Sign :D methinks I should invite her to one of our parties XD
EDIT: Oh yeah, and the fights were really nicely choreographed too. Had a very Japanese feel to them ^_^
Well I saw it tonight :) Most of the general talking was regular style, but there was a lot of creative Butoh stuff in it.
And now I know how to properly describe it. It has often been referred to as "the study of dead bodies floating in space". That's paaart of it, but since half of the play the people weren't dead, I'd like to mix that definition with "abstract interperative dance with dangling".
Basically the best example would be the spirits in the play. Originally they were witches or something, I believe? And they only appeared a few times in the original? Well in this one there were a whole group of spirits, all dressed in and painted white, and the whole time they were hanging in various poses from a half-money bars style object that also acted as a house on the set. When they weren't lying on the bars, they were swinging around slowly and gracefully, and crawling around them, and sometimes they would come down and crawl around briefly. In fact in the very beginning of the play they were lying out like an orgy, they they did that cool "rise up while sitting on your knees and lying back" thing that I envy people for their skill in, and then they climbed up onto the bars.
Another good Butoh style thing, was there were three doors, which were often opened to reveal dead bodies; the character drenched in blood and standing limp like a corpse.
Anyway, what I REALLY liked about this production, especially after asking Jessica about it since I've never seen or read the original (sad to say XD), was that the spirits who are only supposed to be in it twice, were a PART of the entire play; when they weren't speaking they were watching, and when the lights went out the back of the stage was lit so you could see their silhouettes. They often echoed other character's lines, or hissed or moaned or laughed at the things happening, including screaming to wake the others after the first murders. They sometimes reached out to try to touch the characters. They were the ones who dangled daggers tauntingly in front of Macbeth (during the "is this the dagger I see before me?" monologue), and they even poured blood on characters as they died, which TOTALLY caught me off guard the first time it happened and it was AMAZING.
My other favorite thing was the lighting; they had an INCREDIBLE lightning effect, and everything else that wasn't visibility lighting was colored lighting, which not only made the spirits look amazing with the different colors on their pure-whiteness, but also effected the mood. What stuck out most for me in that regard was when we first see Lady Macbeth and Macbeth together, and they're making out and being super lusty, and when it first starts, as the spirits shift and moan, the lights which had been fairly neutral at the time turned a reddish pink color.
They also had puppets manned by four people at once for the children in the play, which was...creepily cool :3
not bad for a first time, eh? ^^ I love this school's theatre program.
In other news about tonight, I saw Mrs. McCary from high school there! She apparently transferred to teach at another school and was also really excited about this.
AND! I got to hang out with Jessica and her boyfriend during and after the show. And when mom and
dcseain picked me up, they asked about them, and Seain said that Jessica looked like fun, and mom agreed. Good Sign :D methinks I should invite her to one of our parties XDEDIT: Oh yeah, and the fights were really nicely choreographed too. Had a very Japanese feel to them ^_^
