With opening night swiftly approaching, the cast of "Macbeth" is hard at work perfecting its interpretation of one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies.
"At this moment, we are halfway through our process," said Kirby Wahl, director of "Macbeth" and associate professor of performing arts.
Wahl said he thinks it is important for Elon students to perform Shakespeare.
"Those of us who direct and teach within the BFA Acting program have a list of genres and styles that we want each of our students exposed to during their time at Elon," Wahl said. "Shakespeare is the only playwright who is himself a specific item in this list of important material that we think our students should perform, work on in some other capacity or simply witness onstage."
The Department of Performing Arts performs a Shakespeare work every other year, while the other items on the list come up on a four-year cycle.
The play follows Macbeth, a Scottish lord with a fierce ambition to become king, and the terrible lengths he goes to in order to achieve that goal.
Wahl said his interpretation of "Macbeth" will look nothing like the Scotland that Shakespeare knew.
"What the team of faculty designers and I focused on in the play was the phantasmagoric or surreal elements in the story," he said. "The world of the play is bloody and dangerous, and sometimes fantastical."
To show this, scenic designer Natalie Hart uses minimal scenery — much like the open arena staging Shakespeare would have used — and the characters wield weapons made from animal bones and kilts made of leather.
Senior Kat Nardizzi, who plays Macbeth's wife, Lady Macbeth, said Elon's interpretation is still true to Shakespeare.
"(The play) does a good job supporting the somewhat twisted, sexual and primal nature of the play," Nardizzi said.
Two years ago, the Performing Arts Department used McCrary Theatre for their production of Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost." This year, "Macbeth" will take place in the smaller Black Box Theatre. The Performing Arts faculty determined "Pride and Prejudice," opening in the spring semester, was more appropriate for McCrary, according to Wahl.
"I am happy to have this production go up in the Black Box because that theater offers a tremendous intimacy," Wahl said. "The experience of the play — from the power of the language, to the presentation of the spell-casting and the fighting — will be immediate and physically engaging."
Cast members agreed the location of the play will provide a compelling environment.
"Everything is going to happen right in their faces: fights, screams, murders, as well as a little bit of comedic relief and some tragic moments as well," said senior Ben Morris, who plays the Scottish lord Macduff.
Shakespeare's plays have a reputation for being difficult to understand, but neither Wahl, Nardizzi or Morris are worried the audience will have trouble following the language. As long as the cast knows what they're saying and can convey the big emotions behind the words, the audience "will still get the drift of a line, even when they don't recognize a word here or there," Wahl said.
Morris said the clarity of the language has been an important factor in rehearsals.
"We've been working very hard on, first of all, making sure we understand what we're saying, and second, on finding out the best way to make it clear to the audience," Morris said.
Wahl, Nardizzi and Morris are confident the audience members will find something to relate to in the characters and the story. Morris said it is Macduff's passion and the wide range of emotions he experiences. Nardizzi said it is Lady Macbeth's strong sense of guilt after she does terrible things her husband hesitated to do.
"The play is a study of one man's ambition," Wahl said. "I think the play still poses some interesting, and perhaps uncomfortable, questions about the limits we do and don't place upon ourselves as we exercise the power that each one of us possesses in this world."
"Macbeth" opens Thursday, Jan. 19 in the Black Box Theatre.