The Tragedy of Macbeth at James Madison University

Spoken word (spoken poetry/street music) adaptation of the famous play by William Shakespeare that tells the spine-chilling tale of Macbeth, a Scottish war hero who murders the king and becomes a cruel ruler. The play is performed by six actors/writers, who translated and adapted the Shakespearean work, turning it into their own musical creation inspired by genre of horror films, and the spoken word style and its attendant culture. The Tragedy of Macbeth is a poetic play about poetics in which the words elevate people to greatness and bring them down, create worlds and destroy them.

The director is one of the pioneers of spoken word poetry in Israel and the founder of the Poetry Slam Israel association, which organizes spoken word contests around the country. He is also a member of the “The Victor Jackson Show” troupe, with whom he wrote “This City,” a rap musical play which he also directed that has been running in Israel for a year and a half and garnered critical acclaim.

Most of the participants are stage poets in their own right, who present their work at various types of poetry events and are among the leading members of the burgeoning spoken word community in Israel.

Original idea and direction: Amit Ulman.
Translation, adaptation, and performance: Dana Yadlin, Amit Ulman, Omer Habaron, Yiftach Leibowitz, Daniel Shapira, and Yoseph Alblak.
Assistant director: Yiftach Leibowitz.