Channeling the Bard

Theatre Dzieci presents a chamber version of the classic Shakespeare tragedy Macbeth. The title character is still there, along with his Lady; the witches, and omens. However this piece, directed and adapted by Matt Mitler, departs slightly from the traditional and becomes something more existential. Performed in a small enclosed space, with just a few actors, the production goes beyond traditional theatrical conventions incorporating folk songs and chants from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe and creates a haunting atmosphere of ritual and ceremony.

Under an aura of improvisation, and with a little gypsy magic, the characters become ideas bigger than any one single actor. Every player has learned every line through a process of oral transmission and will channel each of the main characters at least once throughout the production. There is no set pattern to who will be playing what part and when.

The group, founded by Matt Mitler, "is an international experimental theatre ensemble dedicated to a search for the 'sacred' through the medium of theatre." With a mix of ritual forms from Native American and Eastern spiritual disciplines, ethics based in Humanistic Psychology and techniques based off of Jerzy Growtowski, Eugenio Barba and Peter Brook, Dzieci "aims to create a theatre equally engaged in personal transformation and public presentation."

"Makbet" performs Friday and Saturday, August 28th and 29th at 8pm; $15 in advance, $20 at the door at the Ancram Opera House, 1330 Country Route 7, Ancram, NY 12502. For more info and tickets go to http://dziecitheatre.org/dzfiles/ancram2009.html

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