" What fog descends the brow of Macbeth,When fortune curses him with bloody lust?
Beguiled his brain by a cauldron broth,
Bound and lobotomised,
His soul is lost.”
Jacqui Carroll's Voodoo Macbeth stirs the steamy heart of the French colonial slave trade: by day the Princes parade, by night the drums of the Haitian jungle raise the hair of the neck. Macbeth, in secret, trades with the left hand path of sorcery. His luck too great he falls victim to the powers he invokes. The Black Dog Baka* has possession of his brain, and as his zombie, Macbeth rides his fate in a miasma of treachery and blood. Jacqui Carroll shatters the traditional tale and like Picasso, revels in nightmarish struggles and acrid beauty.
*Baka: “The protective spirit known as a Baka or Gad (guard) can be delivered by a Voodoo priest in the form of a dwarf, small monster or animal. It protects a house or property. Believed to be evil, the Baka can turn on its owner to inflict various misfortunes, including his or her death or the death of their loved ones.” Voodoo: Truth and Fantasy, Laennec Hurbon, Thames and Hudson, London, 1995.
This is the first Dramaturgical Preview of the current work in progress, Voodoo Macbeth, by Frank Theatre. I have coined the term Dramaturgical Preview to acknowledge the nature of this type of advance description of a play. It does not mean that the final production will be plotted in this way, rather the dramaturgical preview is the current imaginative slice of the working matrix of a play in progress. I hope that it will signal the internal nodes active during the "blue print" stage, as Jacqui calls it. As the work progresses the nodes will relax into background radiation of the piece forming its conceptual bones and imaginative structure. For the interested viewer and patron - it is hoped that they will enjoy and be stimulated by the rare window into the creation of a work of theatre art.
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2 comments:
great stuff here florence, i am reading away and love your voodoo images and references.
thanks Jude, I really appreciate your support. Voodoo is a fasinating area, that has been a very rewarding study for me.
xx
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