GOYA Theatre Company’s Don’t Say Macbeth is a fast-paced show filled with well-balanced satire that pokes fun at and spoofs the theatre and musical industry.
A great show for the Fringe
Set around the preparation for a new musical – Double Bubble – about the three witches of Macbeth, the company putting it on faces everything the curse of the Scottish play can throw at them; an unfinished finale, love triangles, performers that don’t know their lines, and of course falling pianos.
The characters are so based in common archetypes that they become stereotypes of themselves. Ham acting on purpose, we do see some of the characters grow as the stakes become higher, all the while becoming invested in how the show turns out. Our own confusion is based and reflected back at us as it seems like even the characters themselves don’t seem to know what is happening in the car crash of a musical that the plot revolves around. We get a lot of second hand embarrassment from the actors themselves as they are put in incredibly human yet inconvenient situations. All of this only serves to create a riotous and chaotic performance that is definitely steeped in reality.
The Fringe-esque production value that is exhibited in this show only serves to add humour to the already ridiculous situation faced by the actors onstage, from the flour as smoke to using a corset as Macbeth's cape. We cannot but laugh at the misfortune of the actors of the show as they try to stage a show about Macbeth without ever saying the name itself. The moments of humour are incredibly subtle, detailed, and sometimes incredibly niche. A lot of the time it’s funny because what is shown onstage is incredibly and (depending on how involved with theatre you have been) painfully accurate.
Don't Say Macbeth is a great show for the Fringe, despite the fact that everything that can go wrong does, but what more can you expect from something based around the curse-ridden Scottish play?
