ShakesBEERience MACBETH October 20
  • Print

ShakesBEER MacbethMARK YOUR CALENDAR

"When shall we three meet again?”— the answer is at Seven Stages Shakespeare Company’s (7SSC) ShakesBEERience reading of MACBETH on October 20 at 6:30PM at The Press Room in Portsmouth, NH. (click title to read more) 

 

One Mondaynight a month from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PMupstairs at The Press Room, professional actors present a reading of a different Shakespeare play. ShakesBEERience is FREE FOR ALL, Or Pay What You Will.  Audience members are able and encouraged to order dinner and drinks while they experience to the play. “At our Season Three launch with KING JOHN last month there was a line before doors opened, and room was full by 6:05,” says Co-Founder and Producing Director Christine Penney, “Early arrival is highly recommended!” 

Managing Director Kevin Condardo will direct MACBETH, and says he is looking forward to bringing this ShakesBEERience to audiences for a rather unique reason—so he can get a good night’s sleep. “When we were putting together the ShakesBEERience lineup this year, The Scottish Play seemed like the perfect fit for Halloween season and I very badly wanted to be a part of it. I am now greatly regretting that decision, because I'm beginning to believe that there really is something other-worldly going on with this play.”

MACBETH has a long history of being a “cursed play.” According to legend, this dates back to early productions of the play, when at the first performance of MACBETH it is said that William Shakespeare himself was forced to play the role of Lady Macbeth when the boy designated to play her suddenly became ill and died. And in Amsterdam in 1672, legend has it that the actor playing Macbeth substituted a real dagger for the prop, blunt, stage dagger, and killed the actor playing Duncan in front of the audience.

Condardo explains that the night after ShakesBEERience in September, he had the most restless night of sleep he can remember. “Each time I woke up, the first thing to pop into my mind was ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’ - one of Macbeth’s most haunting lines. This which either gives credence to the curse, or makes me such a Shakespeare nerd that I shouldn't be allowed in public,” says Condardo.

While ShakesBEERience MACBETH is rehearsing and performing on the East Coast, 7SSC—in partnership with Buck Hill Productions—will also be rehearsing and performing ShakesBEERience MACBETH on the West Coast, in San Jose, CA. Friends and colleagues Alexandra Urbanowski and John McCluggage approached 7SSC with the pitch to bring ShakesBEERience west last year, and since have produced four ShakesBEERiences along with 7SSC at Café Stritch in downtown San Jose. This marks the first that time the East and West Coast programs will be producing the same show, with the West Coast MACBETH directed by 7SSC Co-Founder and Artistic Director Dan Beaulieu.  

“We're excited to be presenting the same play at the same time on different coasts, with different casts, different directors, different cuts and different audiences,” says Beaulieu. “To celebrate the paradoxical nature of the play and the cultural diversity that this program is reaching concurrently, we'll be engaging in dialogue via social media using the hashtags #WickedGood and #HellaGood. While so much is different, it's exciting that the Bard and the enthusiasm FOR the Bard are consistent throughout!”

ShakesBEERience is presented by Throwback Brewery and sponsored by Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel, with support from Season Sponsors DTC Lawyers: Donahue, Tucker & Ciandella, PLLC; and Eric D. Dufour of SagePoint Financial.