Macbeth in the Park

Repercussion takes Shakespeare back to basics

Photo by Ginga Takeshima

It’s hard for me to be critical of, or to take issue with, Repercussion Theatre, because they’ve been a quintessential part of the Montreal theatre scene for just over 20 years, bringing The Bard of Avon to the masses with their legendary Shakespeare-in-the-Park productions. It’s Shakespeare perhaps the way it was intended to be seen, the way we imagine his plays to have been performed in the original Globe Theatre: on the ground, among the people, with audience members coming and going as they please, dogs on leashes, babes in arms. Theatre can be stuffy, with hoity-toity actors speaking speeches trippingly on the tongue, with audience members, opera glasses in hand, dressed to the nines, their jewels sparking in the spotlights. Repercussion takes Shakespeare back to basics; it’s pure entertainment, staged early enough in the evening, before the sun goes down, so that the kids can enjoy it, too.

And they are about to put on my favourite Shakespeare: Macbeth, an action-packed, mystical, cautionary tale about hubris, politics, loyalty, greed, blood and gore. At times it seems that Shakespeare’s plays were ripped from the pages of today’s papers. Indeed, Harold Bloom, one of the world’s foremost literary critics, once wrote a Shakespearean reading of Freud, rather than the other way around, so attuned was The Bard to the human condition, centuries before the birth of the father of modern psychology.

It’s just that at times, over the years, Repercussion’s acting and direction have left me wanting. I’d felt them, at times, to be a little too flippant, taking Shakespeare a little less seriously than I’d like. But then I wonder if perhaps Shakespeare would have loved Repercussion, and might have considered me to be a snob. To wit, another famous Shakespeare troupe, the Reduced Shakespeare Company, is convinced that ol’ Will would have loved bowling and beer. They’re probably right.

Starting July 28th, Repercussion will once again be touring the parks in and around Montreal, setting up sets and stages like circus tents, enchanting the crowd, and then passing the hat, before moving on to the next town and the next park. The beauty is if you miss them in one park on one night, you can catch them in another park a few nights later. They’ll go right through to August 21st, moving from the idyllic setting of a suburban park, to a square in the heart of downtown Montreal, out to the country, and then back again. Nineteen shows in all. Bring a blanket or a lawn chair. And enjoy. After all, “the play’s the thing.”