TWO ACTORS, TWO PLAYS Presents An Exciting New Shakespeare Double Bill

Upcoming actors Hannah Cox and Robert Boddington will take on not one but two canonical Shakespearean roles in Montague Basement's exciting new Shakespearean double bill.

Pairing a mercurial, abstract and surreal Macbeth with a lean, contemporary and viciously polemical The Taming of the Shrew, the two leads will take on both central couples across a two week repertory season.

Directed by Saro Lusty-Cavallari, Macbeth "is an absolutely devastating cross section of the imagination".

"For this production I really wanted to completely embrace the illusion of the theatre," Lusty-Cavallari explains. "Just as the simple phrase 'hail King, hereafter' inspires a bloody chain of events, the most simple gesture on a bare stage can conjure up just as much."

"Macbeth is a play associated with darkness - it's referenced all throughout, explicitly set at night and in dimly lit castles - yet it was written for an outdoor daylight theatre. So no wonder it starts with the witches' chant, the whole play is gigantic illusion. I wanted to restore that uneasy contradiction between what you're told and what you're witnessing, after all 'fair is foul and foul is fair'".

Directed by Caitlin West, The Taming of the Shrew is an unnervingly timely comment that has been a long time coming.

"I've wanted to put on this play for a while", West says, "mostly because I find it such a challenging script that has so many problematic elements, and because of this has the potential to say some really important things about contemporary relationships - and not just romantic ones."

"In a culture where women are still taught to constantly compete with and compare themselves against each other, I think it's important to think about the potential effects of setting up unhealthy dichotomies around femininity, and expecting women to conform to them."

Cox and Boddington have provided the perfect foils for both directors.

"I couldn't ask for a better pair of leads," West notes. "I honestly don't know how those two are doing it. The roles that they're playing in these shows are such huge ones, and they're both putting in an incredible amount of energy and passion into them."

In pairing the two plays, Lusty-Cavallari notes that the season challenges ideas of roles available to men and women in Shakespeare.

"There's an old observation that the comedies belong to the feisty women and the tragedies belong to the solemn men and we've chosen the two plays that really twist that", Lusty-Cavallari explains.

"The Taming of the Shrew is a female led comedy where her agency is brow-beaten into oblivion so male dominance is allowed to reassert itself while Macbeth shows a fierce warrior whose agency is completely subservient to the suggestions of powerful women."

"I really hope audiences get to see both just to get a glimpse of these dynamics being reversed, to see the world of romance and courtship be seized by masculinity and the vicious battlefield being reclaimed by women."

What: Macbeth | The Taming of the Shrew

Venue: PACT Centre for Emerging Artists

Dates: 29 November - 10 December

Times: 8pm (Saturday matinees 2pm)

Bookings: montaguebasement.com/tickets