MAC BETH

Abstract

Mac Beth, by Erica Schmidt, tells the story of seven girls who meet in the woods to reenact "the Scottish play" in secret. As they revise Shakespeare's script, it becomes obvious that the Weird Sisters are up to something. What is said by text is done in action; where there's blood, so is death. By the end of the play, the Weird Sisters are surrounded by the corpses of the rest of the characters; the girl playing Macbeth is actually killed by the girls playing the Weird Sisters in a wicked beheading just like in the original play. In 2014, two twelve-year-old girls lured their friend into the woods to attempt to kill her. Despite being stabbed multiple times and left for dead, the survivor now shared her story. Her blood sacrifice was intended for the two girls to prove themselves worthy to Slender Man, an urban legend the internet wrote stories about. This is now known as the "Slender Man stabbings." The author, Erica Schmidt, was curious about how American psychological mentalities are easily influenced through violence, myths, lies, and manipulation suffused in today's youth. If we can show Shakespeare in a re-imagined way that allows a contemporary audience to find motivation within the world we create, it'll allow people to fabricate their own ideas to share published or adapted stories. For instance, Erica Schmidt uses the text as a vessel to express the frustration of ill-tempered youth. All the girls are coming together to reintroduce this suspenseful text for nobody but themselves. These girls take the audience by the hand and bring them to the exit of reality into the story they're telling. The viewers are given the perspective before the unthinkable is done, the slaughter. The mission is to allow our audience to feel the need to talk about what motivates this seemingly random violence. Before the "Slender Man stabbings," we as a society have been witnesses of children using bloodthirstiness force to convey frustrations they have with the world and their place in it. This play shows the incitement to these acts of violence and gives a frame of reference, creating an urgency to stop it before it goes too far.