Mmmbeth: Competition Length Version

March 8th is International Women’s Day – and what better time to highlight some amazing women within the Theatrefolk community. Join us in celebrating these phenomenal playwrights and authors and their incredible contributions to the world of student theatre. Plus, keep reading to see our Top 10 Plays for Female Casts at the end of the post! Rachel Atkins • Baalzebub (and One Act Version)

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. _Mmmbeth _by Allison Williams is a hilarious gender-bending take on the Scottish play that is a fantastic adaptation for high school and middle school student performers. Everything goes wrong. The witches take over the storytelling, Queen Duncan would rather open a donut franchise than die, Lady M’s a bloodthirsty June Cleaver, and the murderers are preoccupied with creating a commercial for their services. Why did we publish this play? Sometimes all it takes is the right hook for students to connect to Shakespeare. _Mmmbeth _is just that hook. A parody of The Scottish Play, Allison follows the track of original tragic story but makes the whole thing a bold and raucous comedy. Who knew Shakespeare was so much fun! King Duncan is now Queen Duncan and refuses to leave the play, even after she’s killed. Lady M is a blood thirsty June Cleaver. The murderers are obsessed with making commercials. The point is that students can get a grasp of the story, have fun with the story, and open a door to reading the original. Allison also plays with the theatre conventions and mysteries surrounding the original name – don’t say his name on stage or you might get trampled by a hoard of marathon runners! Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? I was working with a school in El Dorado Arkansas, and they wanted to do something light and fun for their competition. I wrote the original draft in five days, they rehearsed it for a week, and took it to competition. Kids were learning the last of their lines in the car on the way there! 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. What goes around comes around. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? A cool little side area for the witches to have as their witchy grotto. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? I’m excited to update and rewrite this one, so if you come up with a good joke in rehearsal, send it to me! And have fun with costumes – this one you can pull just about anything out of storage and have it work. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? We really do cover all of the original play, which is one of my favorites. So this is a great introduction to how fundamentally whacko a lot of Shakespeare’s plays are.

When Jarrett Hannig and the drama students at the Canadian International School of Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi, UAE took on the classical adaptation, Mmmbeth, they got so much more than just a great play. Playwright Allison Williams was actually in attendance for the production and even led a workshop for the group! She was thrilled to be able to interact with the cast and shared her thoughts on the experience: Some coincidences are so strange no-one would believe it if I wrote them in a play! Jarrett Hennig of Saskatchewan is in his first teaching position, at the Canadian School of Abu Dhabi. He gets an email advertising performances of an all-female Macbeth, staged by a Dubai theatre company as an immersive production where the audience moves freely and follows actors as they wish. Jarrett emails back that he and his kids would love to come, because they are getting ready to perform Mmmbeth by Allison Williams. Meanwhile, my production manager looked up from this email and asks me at rehearsal, “Are you the same Allison Williams?” I am indeed. I’m playing Macbeth and fight-directing the show. And I am thrilled to find out about Jarrett’s production! Once a playwright releases their script into the world, it’s rare to get to see it performed. Most productions are too far away, or at a time I can’t travel. I hadn’t seen Mmmbeth in over ten years. Jarrett and his students came to a matinee of our Macbeth, and ran through the halls and hidden rooms of the National Theatre of Abu Dhabi, trailing witches and watching murders. The next week, I came to their school for a stage combat workshop, and they picked up the techniques so fast! And because the students are from so many countries and cultures, we got to try new stage combat moves–how can we use the same technique behind a hair pull, but with a hijab? What culture clashes might (hilariously) lead to a scuffle? When their performances came, I almost didn’t make it. We’d replaced our Macduff before the last weekend of shows and I had extra rehearsals. But I managed to get to Mmmbeth‘s second night and boy, were they terrific! Jarrett chose to stage the play in the round, in the middle of their gym/auditorium, and the student actors made great character choices, especially the three witches, who surprised the audience (and made them jump!) every time they entered. And Queen Duncan definitely ruled the play from start to finish, despite being (mostly) dead. Near the end of Mmmbeth, the murderers came to kill Macduff’s family. The actor playing Macduff also plays Macduff’s son, Macduff Junior. When he’s “killed” he refuses to get up and also be Lady Macduff, because getting killed hurts! Suddenly, the actors moved toward me in the audience, carrying a blonde wig… (In my head: Did I write audience participation in this script? I can’t remember, it’s been so long…they’re getting closer…CRAP. I totally wrote audience participation in!) Sure enough, the actors welcomed me to the stage and gave me the directions for Lady Macduff’s big death scene. They didn’t expect that when they said “She’s paralyzed with fear! Fight or flight?” that I would take off running around the entire gym, but bless their 1/3-my-age legs, they caught up eventually and dragged me back for a lovely murder. Jarrett had wanted to stage Mmmbeth ever since he saw his older brother in a production at their own school. In fact, it’s the play that made him decide to study, and eventually, teach drama! Coming full circle and meeting each other felt like the best kind of serendipity. Thanks again for the wonderful production, and I’m so glad we met! What an amazing experience, Canadian International School of Abu Dhabi! *Photo credit: Allison Williams, Nick Brocklebank/PhotoAcacia Ltd

This week on Spread the Love, Craig talks about Mmmbeth: Competition Length Version by Allison Williams.