CityLife

Kidz beware the 'curse' of 'Scottish play'

Macbeth gets the Kidz treatment at the Palace

NOTORIOUSLY, Shakespeare’s great play Macbeth is referred to by thesps of a superstitious nature as ‘the Scottish Play’, lest the ‘curse’ surrounding it of the play should befall them.

Hopefully, that won’t be the case when the play gets the Shakespeare 4 Kidz treatment in a couple of weeks at the Palace Theatre.

Its creator, Julian Chenery, who has seen his adaptation tour five times now, is fairly confident that the play will be a winner once again.

“The curse is something we’ve had our share of in the past, though,” he says.

“In the autumn of 2000 we had incessant rain for three months which affected all of our get-ins and get-outs.

“There was a national fuel strike which made it nigh-on impossible to move the production around the UK; the actor playing Banquo hit his head on the windscreen of the cast coach; the actor playing King Duncan went down with Bell’s Palsy, making half his face freeze, and one of the stage crew walked into a door and fractured her skull.

“Apart from that the show was a huge hit and has remained immensely popular ever since!”

Shakespeare 4 Kidz plays use the most famous lines from the original texts, weaves them into modern language, and adds some song and dance into the mix, resulting in a two hour entertainment which everyone – even the youngest primary school kids – can understand. 

The whole plot is retained and all the major characters are there too, in this case telling the blood-soaked story of the murderous Scottish warrior who, egged on by the prophecies of three weird witches and the ambitions of his evil wife, removes every obstacle in his path until he can seize the throne for himself.

Playing the role of Macbeth for the third (and hopefully lucky!) time is Jason Lee Scott, who leads a 14-strong company.

Matthew Kelly

Starry supporters of the company have told some of their own stories of the play, including Matthew Kelly, who recalls of his drama college production at Manchester Poly where he ‘played the Porter in a sort of vaudeville fashion’!

“It’s still one of my greatest memories – doing that great play,” he says.

"I’m sending you loads of good luck for your forthcoming production of the Scottish Play.”

Jonathan Pryce has his own bad luck stories to tell after playing Macbeth. “When I played him in Stratford,” he recalls, “before the first night Lady Macbeth had an accident and fractured her collar bone. I fell head first down the stairs on stage and for the first time forgot my lines in the middle of a soliloquy.

“At the Barbican, I got stuck in the lift with the three witches and was rescued just in time to make my re-appearance.”

The Shakespeare 4 Kidz Macbeth is at the Palace Theatre on Monday, September 14 at 1.30pm & 7.30pm; and Tuesday, September 15 at 10am & 1.30pm. Call 0844 847 2275 for tickets.