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Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence (Crash Theatre Company), at Trades Hall - 60 minutes

Writer's picture: Alex FirstAlex First

Updated: Oct 12, 2024

Ambition at what cost? Just how far is one willing to go to achieve one’s goal?

 

Those are the questions posed in the anarchic reworking of the Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth.

 

In one of the Bard’s most feted works, written at the start of the 17th century, Lady Macbeth was a pivotal figure.

 

She goaded her husband into committing regicide (killing a king).

Photos by K Darius Photography


In Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence, with the interschool finals beckoning, Mac Beth is convinced she will be named captain of her Year 11 netball side.

 

She has coveted the leadership role since she was in Year 7 and it is one she believes she richly deserves.

 

But when her coach turns elsewhere, she is mortified, furious and vindictive.

 

Hardly a popular player to begin with, she schemes to right what she perceives as a wrong (not that the other members of the team feel the same way).

She begins badmouthing and blackmailing at will.

 

In the firing line is anyone who dares stand in her way, as she doubles down and then some.

 

No-one is safe; no-one is spared her poison tongue and skulduggery, including successive captains and the coach, who wasn’t exactly an angel in her day.

 

Involving theatre, music and dance, Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence is a hilarious, cautionary tale involving naked ambition, bullying and gaslighting.

Written by Courtney McManus, with music and direction from Bec Price and choreography by Shannon Rogers, it is raucous and irreverent.

 

Up tempo musical numbers are interspersed with the narrative, which combines modern language with Shakespeare’s English.

 

The eight cast members have a wow of a time playing up to an appreciative audience, milking the many pointed and humorous moments.

 

Orla Jean Poole revels is her bad girl persona, as Mac Beth quickly falls out with her best friend, Summer Banquo (Kate Sisley), who tries in vain to reason with her.

Courtney McManus maintains a commanding presence as tell it like it is Coach Duncan.

 

As Chloe Macduff, Shannon Rogers takes the captaincy in her stride, while immediately taking a gentle swipe at Mac Beth.

 

Ana Ferreira Manhoso brings entitlement to her role as stand in captain Mia Porter.

 

I loved the attitude and scowl that Emily Semple engendered in Ashley Donalbain.

 

Georgia McGivern generates comic ditz to her persona as Brooke Ross, while Gabriella Munro rounds out the confident and enthusiastic octet as Jess Malcolm.

The team is dressed in predominantly pink netball unforms, with splashes of black and white, that constitute the Dunsinane Hell-Hounds.

 

Dealing with her wickedness, Mac Beth is visited in her dreams by a trio sporting pink feathery hooded silken dressing gowns over their uniforms.

 

They are the Dagger Divas and echo the ghostly encounters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, being a portent of doom.

Bold and bodacious, loud and proud, there is no shortage of goal assists in Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence, which scores big time plaudits from me.

 

It is part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

 

For more about Crash Theatre Company, go to https://crashtheatre.com.au

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