Shakespeare, Polish style!

A groundbreaking production of Macbeth by the award-winning Teatr Pieśń Kozła (Song of the Goat Theatre) comes to MMU’s Capitol Theatre this week in their first UK tour.

Hailed as the most exciting and innovative of the new avant-garde theatre movements in Poland, the group is made up of graduates and staff from MMU’s Masters degree in Acting.

Set up six years ago, the MA is run jointly with Song of the Goat in Wroclaw and has attracted students from all over the world. Many graduates from the course have gone on to work within the theatre company, which has toured globally and even performed for the Dalai Lama.

Continuing the Polish theatre tradition

Song of the Goat conceive their unique and highly concentrated performances through a long process of living and working together whilst exploring and researching vocal and movement techniques, typical of traditional Polish ensemble theatre work.

“The ensemble research approach in Poland is very strong, it doesn’t just come out of thin air,” says Anna Zubrzycki, Song of the Goat’s co-founder, who plays Lady Macbeth.

“During the 19th century Poland was completely subsumed within Russia, Austria and Prussia. Our ancestors would sing around the campfire, that’s how traditions were passed on. And during communism, people would go to the theatre to see the story beneath the story – the allegory.”

Haunting interpretation of the Shakespeare classic

Macbeth was developed over a period of two years. The story is there, the characters are there, but instead of using Shakespeare’s words the performance takes inspiration from the musicality of his extraordinary language.

The result is a beautiful, dream-like and chilling piece of theatre that intricately combines song, Corsican chant, movement, kayagum (a Korean string instrument) and dialogue.

Macbeth will run at The Capitol Theatre from Wednesday 27th to Friday 29th October 2010, prior to a three-week stint at London’s Barbican Theatre. Tickets can be purchased here.