EDINBURGH 2022: Flabbergast Q&A

BWW catches up with Henry Maynard from Flabbergast to chat about bringing The Tragedy of Macbeth to the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about The Tragedy of Macbeth.

Macbeth is a classic tale of greed and the lust for power. Our protagonist and his wife have long plotted to kill the King in order to take his place (this play was written in part to promote the divine right of Kings as a parable against unworthy people taking the throne) and when the King decides to stay at their castle the perfect opportunity arises. The 'Unnatural' regicide results in Macbeth being unable to sleep leading to a worsening of his 'strange affliction' and a murderous paranoid madness. A trail of bodies lead to a bloody and tragic end.

We use the original text and stay true to the play in many ways but have created a visually explosive exploration, applying our historical work in devising, clown, puppetry, buffon and mask whilst also exploring new (to us) elements such as Butoh, the work of Matej Matejka and Grotowski.

Our initial foray into the world of Macbeth began in 2018 when we rehearsed and performed the play in 10 days at Wilton's Music Hall, the reception we received was encouraging and we embarked on the development of our full production in 2020 just as Covid laid waste to the theatrical landscape.

We are interested in highlighting the theme of gender expectation, the Play makes many references to the ideals of gender and the expectations placed upon us by society 'are you a man?' 'you would be so much more the man' 'I must feel it as a man' 'unsex me here' 'bring forth men children only' 'why do I put up that womanly defence to say I have done no harm' it also plays upon the masculine fear of feminine power as represented by the Witches and Lady Macbeth.

Whilst the Play tackles huge topics, such as murder, violence, power, sex and madness we have remained true to the irreverence that those who follow our work will be familiar with. We have drawn out the humour and absurdities to highlight the tragic elements lending humanity to the tragic archetypes.

Where might we know Flabbergast from?

Flabbergast Theatre has been producing theatre since 2010, we have toured all over the globe and presented at the Edinburgh Fringe 8 times, including running a venue for two years with Assembly Festival. You might have seen one of the Boris & Sergey puppetry shows (there were six) our one man clown show Tatterdemalion, or our immersive show from 2018 The Swell Mob... you might have seen us at Shakespeare's Globe supporting Plan B or in his music video to In the Name of Man, or if you were a friend of a Saudi Sheik you might have seen us perform in the Seychelles...

Do you need to know Shakespeare well to enjoy it?

Not at all, our focus is on storytelling and delivering a concise and exciting version of the play, we pride ourselves on making the text and the story line as clear as is possible. We have several ensemble members who speak English as a second language and for whom the idea of performing Shakespeare was initially nerve wracking who now revel in how easy the text is to understand.

Through our process we have forensically dissected the language and verse of Shakespeare, using it to communicate more clearly, as indeed it was first intended to do. Often Shakespeare will use flowery poetry alongside more direct explanations, this was because he was writing for two distinct audiences, those of the court and those in the pit an example is:

'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

clean from my hand? No - this my hand will rather

the multitudinous seas incarnadine,

Making the green one red.'

Hopefully if you miss the poeticism of 'incarnadine' you will catch the meaning of 'making the green one red'

The text is spoken at a lick and I think sometime people worry that they miss bits but we would advise letting it wash over you and allowing for the fact that there are archaisms that may not be fully understandable now, also bear in mind that Shakespeare created his own words where they did not exist... for example the first recorded use of 'Bubble' is in this play.

What makes the storytelling unique?

The process of our discovery and expression is embodied and physical and we hope that the audience will experience it in a visceral way, this is layered with a respect for text but an irreverent attitude to the slavery of form that can sometimes trap other productions of Shakespeare.

The performers are transmutable allowing us to express the witches and other characters within the ensemble, there is a sense of confusion and hallucination that runs throughout the play 'nothing is, but what is not' ... 'confusion now has made it's masterpiece' we allow the audience to peek into the madness that envelops Macbeth through his lack of sleep and his 'strange affliction'.

As a performer of contemporary clown, I was interested in the humanity of Macbeth and his contemporaries and trying to steer away from hyper masculinised or serious stereotypes that sometimes dominate the play, finding our playful side helps the play dramaturgically and leads to some delightfully silly moments. Buffon (grotesque satirical clowning) allowed us to access a profane and insane side to the play allowing us to mock ourselves and the play.

We have also begun a journey into the world of Butoh (a dance and performance form that focuses on transformation, ugliness, and weakness) which has added texture. Marie Gabrielle-Rotie (The Northman) was our conduit to this space and we hope to continue to develop our skills within it.

Who would you like to come and see it?

EVERYONE! It sounds glib but we believe we have produced something that will excite new audiences, satisfy more experienced theatre goers and the audiences that might be more used to our cabaret, immersive, puppetry and clown work. Obviously, we can't please everyone and if we don't get a couple of walk-outs we probably aren't trying hard enough, but if you come with an open mind we expect you to be delighted.

Photo credit: Michael Lynch

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