Happening one night only tomorrow night from 7pm to 9pm, a truck equipped with a stage on its back will be rolling throughout the streets of the Mile End and Plateau with a performance of Macbeth on it.
Billed as a "grand, wild, shoe-string budget theatrical happening", the stage will be outfitted with music, trees and smoke machines and always on the move. Audiences are encouraged to come out onto their balconies or to take a look from the street (safely socially-distanced, of course) in order to see the major scenes of the play, one that's been entirely reimagined in modern English by local actor, writer and provocateur Joe Bagel.
Promising to be a event that's "part clown show, part performance art... street theatre at its best," the play was directed by acclaimed local author Heather O'Neill, with costumes and the set being designed by Arizona O’Neill.
The main actor of the moving stage is Dakota Jamal as Lady Macbeth; Jamal's appeared in the films of Xavier Dolan alongside many other stages.
From the release: "We felt a desperate need to perform live before this hard summer was over. Shakespeare himself lived through three plagues and was no stranger to theatres being shuttered. During these times he wrote plays and performed outside typical theatrical venues. In this spirit our play will recreate the roving nature of a Renaissance theatrical troupe.
We have chosen Macbeth because of its claustrophobia and also as a means to explore its feminist elements. We were interested in the role of Lady Macbeth and how she has become a pejorative term for ambitious women. We are also interested in the role of witches in Shakespeare’s time and throughout history and the role they have played in prophesizing and speaking strange truths...
It is the perfect time for a Shakespeare play to find a way to be recreated in these times of pandemic. We are eschewing the large budgets that hamper the meaning of Shakespeare and returning it to its punk rock survivalist roots."
The stage will depart at 7pm next to Parc Saint-Viateur Parc and will move through the streets of Mile End, ending on Esplanade next to Parc Jeanne-Mance at 9pm.
Most popular on Time Out
- The Atwater Market eatery from ex-Satay Bros. staff is perfect for cheap Lachine Canal picnics
- Montreal is now home to the world's largest urban rooftop greenhouse and farm in the world
- Huge marionette performances are taking to the streets every weekend in Verdun
- A drive-thru poutine festival begins today and it's running all weekend long
- Laval's got a gorgeous new Vietnamese spot for street food and towers of beer, 123 DZO