BWW Interviews: Trevor White, MACBETH At The Open Air Theatre

Hi Trevor. I hear you've been in rehearsals all day?

And we had a show! We're in previews, we're doing shows and rehearsing around them. We're in rep with Comedy of Errors at night. Usually one rehearses in the day and a show at night, we do the show in the day and rehearse around it. It's pretty crazy.

That's a hectic timetable - so how's it going?

Yeah, it's going brilliantly well. It's a wonderful play. It's a lot of people's favourite Shakespeare because it's so action-packed and it's a shorter play, and it's a clear play, which people really take to. What people really enjoy about it is that there's not a lot of subplot - it's kill the king and then deal with the consequences of what we've done, which leads to a lot more deaths and ultimately my death. It's fun having the crowds in because at the end it gets quite divided. Some people are cheering on the new king, some people are booing him, so they must like me. At least that's how I'm taking it.

When I first heard that the Open Air were doing it for a family audience, I was quite surprised.

No, absolutely, point taken. I think Steve Marmion, the director, is fantastic. He's done pantos, he's done straight plays, he's really clever at knowing what kids like. It has to appeal to children as young as six to as old as old can be. None of the language of the play is any different to what Shakespeare wrote. It's been cut, as almost all Shakespeare plays are, it runs under two hours. It is amongst the shortest plays anyway, but none of the language has been changed at all. There are scenes that go on a bit, and they've been cut down to size. Steve has cleverly put in some movement, some puppets, some fights, some songs - the witches' words at the start have been set to music to make it more accessible and fun and interesting, but that's hardly a crime. I think it's a wonderful thing that shows could use more of. It's going down really well with the kids. I'm sure there are parts of it that they're not getting, but then again there are parts of it that adults don't get a lot of the time anyway, and even us going through it with a fine tooth comb to make sense of it for ourselves. There's also a big screen that goes behind us that we spray-paint to talk through all the characters, when they die, what prophecies are said by the witches - you can refer back to those as we go along. I think it's great actually. We haven't really shied away. The kids do get excited when there's a kiss or someone pulls out a sword. There's lots of whistling and screaming! That's kind of fun, actually, I like that. It's great. None of the mature content has been compromised at all. It's great. I was slightly concerned that I'd play a neutered Macbeth as it were, but that's not the case at all, which is really terrific.

When you get a part like Macbeth and it's for a family audience, did it affect your characterisation?

No. I've seen it a few times, and it's always taken quite seriously. I think there's a lot of humour in it - not just that we've found in it, or that we've conjured up because we have to play to younger audiences - it is borderline absurd, these witches, these apparitions, Banquo's ghost. It's disturbing, it's very dark humour, but even the central premise - "no man of woman born" - it's a hell of a red herring, the whole play hangs on the fact that I was born by caesarean section, it's a hell of a plot twist to throw in. We're really making the most of it and having a lot of fun, I think and I hope where appropriate. The things that are disturbing or horrible are given full weight. There's a lot of fun in it as well. I'll let you judge for yourself. The director has worked on this play in various capacities five or six times now. He says there's lots of things in this that he's never seen before, that are fresh to him. I think that's the most important thing. People are pretty familiar with it oftentimes, maybe not the younger kids. It's great to be coming at it in a new way.

And the Open Air as a setting must be exciting and add to the atmosphere.

Absolutely. We're doing daytime shows exclusively, so that does take away the things banging in the dark element, but having the wind blowing through the trees and entering and exiting through forests, it's really wonderful, and it makes everyone want to participate more and get involved more. The speeches are directly addressed to the audience - we're speaking to the people and trying to get them involved in as many ways as we can.

What are your plans after you finish?

Sleep! I was in Enron for almost a year before this, and I said to my agent it'd be great to do some film and television, work a few days. She said, "Great! Oh, do you want to play Macbeth?" That's the way these things work. This is a short job, but high energy. There are possible things that could happen - I'll be back in my native Vancouver for a friend's wedding, and I've not been back in a year and a half, so that's on the immediate horizon. And my girlfriend Eleanor Matsuura is starring in Danton's Death, so I'm really excited about that. So three weeks of fun - then the great unknown!

Trevor White is starring in Macbeth at the Open Air Theatre.