{"id":108451,"date":"2024-10-11T13:14:44","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T17:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=108451"},"modified":"2024-10-11T13:14:44","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T17:14:44","slug":"scrutiny-tarragons-goblinmacbeth-clever-hilarious-examination-play-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/10\/11\/scrutiny-tarragons-goblinmacbeth-clever-hilarious-examination-play-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Tarragon\u2019s Goblin:Macbeth Is Clever, Hilarious Examination Of Play & Theatre Itself"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tarragon
Tarragon Theatre\u2019s production of Goblin:Macbeth (Photo: Jae Yang)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tarragon Theatre & A Spontaneous Theatre Creation\/Goblin:Macbeth, devised by Rebecca Northan and Bruce Horak, music by Ellis Lalonde, closes Oct. 27. Tickets here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Tarragon\u2019s season opener, Goblin:Macbeth, is a prime example that one should never make snap judgments.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the play, I thought, oh dear, this is just juvenile silliness, but as the evening progressed, and the cast started to reveal clever bit after clever bit, I settled in and had a most enjoyable time. In fact, I came away as an ardent admirer of the creators.<\/p>\n

The premise is this. Three Goblins have come across Shakespeare\u2019s Collected Works, and are so intrigued by the concept of theatre, that they decide to try their hand at mounting a play. Not surprisingly, they settle on Macbeth, which is, as they tell us, the shortest and the bloodiest, and most importantly, it has witches.<\/p>\n

Now Tarragon attendees, beware. Goblin:Macbeth is an immersive experience and you have to participate or else you might get shamed into it. This close interface between the Goblins and the audience is part and parcel of the delight of the production.<\/p>\n

Another underpinning of the play is the theory that whenever a production of Macbeth is announced, the question immediately arises \u2014 who\u2019s playing the thane and his lady? As the Goblins explain in their Director\u2019s Note (and who knew Goblins could theorize), if the cast were anonymous, the spotlight would revert from the actor to the text.<\/p>\n

They are also asking the audience to look at Macbeth with new eyes, as seen through the Goblins\u2019 innate curiosity to this new experience called theatre. As well, their very nature dictates that they can\u2019t help but blend humour with the macabre, and so the audience should be prepared for the onstage shenanigans that mischievous Goblins are prone to.<\/p>\n

Thus, we are presented with three quite ugly but identical Goblins, differentiated only by their height and unique voices. The very inventive Moog performs the amusing score and sound effects, while Wug is Macbeth (and a few others) and Kragva is Lady Macbeth and everyone else. Kragva does the most interchange with the audience, and displays razor-sharp wit in the doing.<\/p>\n

The upshot is a very clever rendering of Macbeth. Of course the Goblins have added in scenes and riff on lines, but the major plot points are there, and done amazingly well.<\/p>\n

For example, the banquet scene when Macbeth sees Banquo\u2019s ghost is so clever that it could fit right into any mainline production. Then there are Macbeth\u2019s encounters with the witches, of which, of course, the Goblins take particular delight. One hilarious add on scene between Banquo and his son Fleance represents everything that irritates us about teenagers. Oh, and Donalbain is now Malcolm\u2019s lapdog.<\/p>\n

\"Tarragon
Tarragon Theatre\u2019s production of Goblin:Macbeth (Photo: Jae Yang)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps the best line of the production occurs when Wug remonstrates against Kragva for not paying attention to internal rhymes, rhyming couplets and the iambic pentameter in text delivery, to which Kragva responds, \u201cWho gives a shit?!\u201d (which got a huge roar of laughter from the audience who probably remember the struggles of Grade 11 English class).<\/p>\n

As for the Goblins and their acting, sometimes text is garbled, but, nonetheless, they acquit themselves quite well in both portraying characters and capturing the right mood, particularly in the murder of Duncan. It is an absolute coup de th\u00e9\u00e2tre how they slip effortlessly from one character to another. In one terrific scene, Kragva actually plays three characters at the same time, and giving Macduff a Scottish accent is just gilding the lily.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to give anything away about how the audience is involved in the play. You\u2019re just going to have to find out for yourselves, but it really does add to the fun.<\/p>\n

The Goblins did have help in putting on the show. Philip Edwards has given them smart black costumes \u2014 pants and a tunic coat \u2014 which somehow are very Gobliny in look (similar to the Ferengi in Star Trek), and kudos to Anton DeGroot for his superb lighting effects.<\/p>\n

This Goblin:Macbeth is a genuine hit for the Tarragon.<\/p>\n

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The Tarragon\u2019s season opener, Goblin:Macbeth, is a prime example that one should never make snap judgments about a show. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":108453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40967,52,62,63],"tags":[13714],"yst_prominent_words":[7200,10970,21485,14426,17535,6616,9913,11181,8214,10398,31578,14421,8973],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/10\/Copy-of-CRITICS-PICKS-86.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-sdd","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108451"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108456,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108451\/revisions\/108456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108451"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=108451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}