The magic of Macbeth: Shakespeare Company brews up a goblin version of the murderous king

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Macbeth, the murderous Thane of Cawdor, is one of the most coveted roles in the Shakespeare canon.

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He’s been played by such acting heavyweights as Patrick Stewart, Orson Welles, Sean Connery, Ian McKellan and Denzel Washington and his power-hungry wife by the likes of Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Vivien Leigh and Francis McDormand.

In The Shakespeare Company’s upcoming production of what’s known as The Scottish Play, the scheming Highland duo will be played by a pair of goblins which is why the show is being called Goblin: Macbeth. This twisted take on a play whose very name terrifies actors, directors and producers alike will run in the Vertigo Theatre Studio Theatre from March 17 to 27.

Under those goblin masks are former Calgarians Rebecca Northan and Bruce Horak, two of Canada’s most revered improvisers, actors, innovators and writers. It was in their creative caldrons that this daring enterprise was brewed.

Northan says she, Horak and The Shakespeare Company’s Haysam Kadri began talking about a goblin Macbeth five years ago.

“The three of us have known each other since we met through Mount Royal College’s Shakespeare in the Park in 1994. The three of us worked together in Alberta Theatre Projects’ 2007 production of Robin Hood. We always shoot the breeze and we’ve tossed around this idea of a goblin Macbeth for at least five years, but it was always just an idea,” says Northan.

That idea became a plan last month when Kadri was trying to plot The Shakespeare Company’s emergence from the pandemic.

“Our last full production was The Merchant of Venice with Seana McKenna as Shylock in the fall of 2019. During the pandemic, we did some small outdoor events and some streaming but we wanted to come back with an in-person show. Budget-wise, it needed to be a small show but Shakespeare never wrote one of those,” says Kadri, who called Northan and asked, “do you have anything for me?”

Northan phoned Horak who said it was time for the goblin Macbeth and 30 minutes later she pitched their idea once again to Kadri. He called Joel Cochrane, his longtime producing partner from Hit and Myth Productions.

“It took Joel all of three seconds to say he was on board. We all agreed that Goblin: Macbeth is the kind of novel idea that will cause a lot of buzz and have the potential to bring people back to the theatre,” says Kadri.

Northan quickly points out “it was Shakespeare who got people back into the theatres after the Great Plague of London in 1666 so let’s just say history is repeating itself.”

Even with Northan, Horak, Kadri and Cochrane on board within 48 hours, there was a possible major hurdle.

“As soon as we knew the show was a real possibility, Bruce and I went in search of the masks we would need. We found a company called Composite Effects in the States that makes film quality masks. We needed three because our live musician, Ellis Lalonde, would also need to be masked and they are very expensive,” recalls Northan, who adds that when she told Kadri they cost about $1,000 each, there was dead silence on the other end of the phone.

The production went back on track when Northan contacted Corey Hallisey, a Calgary superfan of her and Horak’s work.

“Corey was one of the audience members we used in our Alberta Theatre Projects’ play Legend Has It back in 2014. He told us if we ever needed help to contact him which I did and 15 minutes after he checked out the Composite Effects website, he texted back that he would get us the three masks.

“I’ve always believed that when doors keep opening for you, you know that what you’re undertaking is meant to be and doors were flying open on this project.”

Although both Northan and Horak now live in Stratford, Ont., when Goblin: Macbeth received its green light, Kadri was in Calgary, Northan was in Montreal teaching at the National Theatre School and Horak was in Milwaukee designing artwork for a theatre company. The editing for the script was done over the phone and on Zoom.

“We cut the script down to about 60 minutes and will add about 20 minutes of improv each performance,” explains Horak. “The text won’t change but what audiences see will depend on what the goblins get up to at any particular performance.

“Improv is first nature to Rebecca and me because it has been a part of us from our early days at Loose Moose. Learning lines is a little lower on that scale.”

Horak says rehearsing these goblins “has helped Rebecca and me rediscover a lot about ourselves and they are fun to play because they are mysterious and magical. Spirits, goblins, fairies, witches and monsters are so much a part of Shakespeare’s worlds.”

Northan explains the concept for Goblin: Macbeth. “These three goblins have found a copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare. They’ve never actually seen a play but found an acting lesson in the text of Hamlet. They are really excited about the prospect of doing a play so they decide to highjack the Studio Theatre at Vertigo.”

Kadri says he has complete faith that Northan, Horak and Lalonde can pull of this highwire act. “As artists, Rebecca and Bruce have always been innovators. They’re bold, take risks, and think outside the box.”

Offstage, both Northan and Horak will be busy this year. Northan plays a villain in an upcoming episode of the CBC sitcom Overlord and the Underwoods, and Horak, who is legally blind, has been cast as Hemmer, a blind alien on the new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds TV series.