Macbeth

Third World Bunfight (South Africa)

Third World Bunfight brings us a free adaptation of Verdi’s opera—and by free, we mean daring, radical and uninhibited in its transformations. The original work is scaled to more intimate dimensions, with composer Fabrizio Cassol reworking it for a cast of 10 singers and incorporating African musical idioms, particularly percussion. The music retains its powerful force, but comes to us with a new urgency, in a new style. The story is updated as well: Shakespeare’s tale of treachery loses all its historical remoteness and becomes a document of the present, set in the Democratic Republic of Congo and featuring machine guns, mineral mines and a corporate cabal.

These twists on the Bard and the composer bring them into our age of disquiet, boldly recasting their work in a contemporary context. We may know the story, we may know the themes, but we haven’t seen it all brought to life like this: as a detailed sociological portrait, with politics placed above metaphysics. With contemporary costumes, back projection and bold set design this is, at last, a true Macbeth for our times.

Never again can opera be referred to as a European phenomenon… See this production if it’s the only theatre outing you have this year. It’s an unforgettable musical and dramatic experience.

—The Argus

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