PRODUCTION Macbeth: A Political Allegory
Data Type：publicity
Author：Lei, Bi-qi Beatrice
Title：Macbeth: A Political Allegory Press Release
Date：2011/5
Language：English
Abstract：The article summarizes the festival event and the NTU's team's accomplishment. It argues for Shakespeare's relevance to contemporary politics, and analyzes the production's features of live music and quick scene and costume changes. The author also introduces each actor and crew member and acknowledges help from NTU's drama faculty.
The NTU team participated in the final competition at the 7th Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival in Hong Kong (May 23-25, 2011), and won four distinguished awards--1st Runner Up, Most Original Production, Best Ensemble Work, and Outstanding Actor. The Festival was hosted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong and sponsored by the Dr. Tien Chang Lin Technology Innovation Foundation. Participants came from top universities in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Over forty teams submitted a video for the first-round screening, and fourteen were chosen to stage their production in Hong Kong. NTU beat the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Fudan University, Wuhan University, and other prestigious schools and is only second to Renmin University.

Directed by Bi-qi Beatrice Lei, Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and Coordinator of the NTU Shakespeare Forum, NTU's production is a condensed and updated version of Shakespeare's Macbeth, focusing on the public and the political aspect of the play. While presenting the tragedy of regicide and tyranny in verbatim Shakespearean lines, this production can also be seen as an allegory of contemporary politics, of Taiwan and elsewhere, from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, from Africa to Latin America. What makes Shakespeare a greatest writer is his timelessness and universality--after 400 years and across 6000 miles, his characters still speak to us and for us. To render Shakespeare local and contemporary is thus truly Shakespearean in spirit.

Not only bold and innovative in its theme and approach to Shakespeare, the production also stands out in theatre aesthetics, presenting a visual and aural feast. Live music, vocal and percussionist, is used to create an uncanny and ritualistic atmosphere featured by Shakespeare's original. Two large soft scenes are lowered during performance for dramatic effects, and also enable quick scene and costume changes on stage. It aims at a total theatre and is very demanding for the actors, all undergraduates from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, who are required to sing, dance, make a human pyramid, and cut wires. David Ta-Wei Ting, a fifth-year student, brilliantly impersonated the difficult title character, and won an actor award. Anita Ying-Jeng Wang, a senior student leading in her department's graduation production in the same month, appears in seven different roles, from an alluring queen to a stern cop. Umy Yi-Hsuan Chang, a freshman student and soprano of the NTU Choir, captured the audience with her beautiful singing. Chung-Min Yin, an NTU graduate now working for professional theatre, helped with technical aspects and stage management. Also Michelle Chun-Han Hsu, a freshman, did excellent scene design.

The production was sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts' "Aiming for Top University Project," and received professional advice from Vivian Ching-Mei Chu and Po-Shen Lu, faculty from NTU's Department of Drama and Theatre.