Placer Rep's MACBETH at Parkview Event Room, Johnson-Springview Park

This is not your grandma's MacBeth. A tight edit of Shakespeare's play, energetically performed by four actors and influenced by the despot absurdist, comedic icon King UBU.

PLACER REP 2024-2025 SEASON'S THEME: Dark Ambitions. MacBeth is the first of three plays this season that feature this theme. We're confident you'll love our script-in-hand performance of this classic tale.

IDEA: Let’s explore this story by ripping the mask off the murderous MacBeth and his Lady to expose their brutish, base ambitions and sheer audacity. Throughout time, historical figures with extreme power (Caligula, Napoleon, Hitler, warlords and more) felt so certain of their absolute power that they did not hide their dark ambitions. As Lady MacBeth says, "What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?”

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely” said the 19th century British politician Lord Acton. But that same thought has been expressed throughout human history in various forms.

To mine the themes in this play, we've selected in rehearsals to be inspired by the absurd, comedic characters in King Ubu. It is PA and MA UBU's uncensored boldness and outrageus honesty that expose the animal nature of our drives, to comic effect, as we humans seek power and status. The UBUs help us see our own hypocracy as we use intellectual excuses to cover for our base behaviors and desires. Let the exploration begin...