The school production of Macbeth that took place January 23rd-25th was bloody, grotesque, and bloody. The show was about Macbeth, which is a fairly well-known story. It grapples with themes such as greed, ambition, and fate. 

I thought that the production was very well done. The set was large and contained three platforms of varying heights that were sometimes used to portray class differences between characters or demonstrate a character’s rise to power. The set helped to tell the story. There was also an elevator on the tallest platform that was incredibly rocky when moving. The lighting used dark colors of varying shades, such as heavy reds and foreboding purples, to create a mysterious, ominous mood. There was no shortage of haze, which added to the mystery of the show. On the back of the set, curtains were set up that were victim to splatterings of blood whenever Macbeth dove deeper into his insanity. It was obvious that the actors put their all into this production. There was no lack of emotion, only some unintelligible speech. 

Of the material of the play itself, there is not much to criticize, as this story has been around for hundreds of years. However, something that did not make sense was the style of music that was played between scenes. The music could have correlated to the setting. Instead of what was played, the music could have been something more Scottish, like a bagpipe. Although the formation of the set is impressive, it was a little drab. It was just painted black, which puts forth a mysterious ambiance, but it left the eye wanting more. Throughout the play, the king of Scotland changes a couple of times. To add some nuances to the set, banners or a set of arms of who was in power at that time in the play could have been set on stage to make the set more appealing and to help clarify the story for people unfamiliar with the play. Overall, the production was entertaining and thoroughly disturbing, but it could have used some smaller nuances or intricacies to add another level of creativity and dynamism to the production.