festival DANCE & PHYSICAL THEATRE
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LADY MACBETH: UNSEX ME HERE
All-male dance take on the story of Macbeth’s wife
She’s one of Shakespeare’s most fascinating characters, so it’s only right that choreographer Kally Lloyd-Jones treats her with the complexity she deserves in multi-layered dance theatre piece, Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here.
Danced by not one but three performers – all of whom are male – the show captures the psychological inner workings of Macbeth’s wife as the couple slips deeper and deeper into violence and tragedy.
‘Lady Macbeth’s journey has three different phases,’ says Lloyd-Jones, ‘and I liked the idea of each dancer performing a solo that comes from one of her monologues during the play.’
Created in collaboration with inclusive theatre company Solar Bear, Lloyd-Jones has also peppered subtle moments of British Sign Language (BSL) throughout the piece.
‘It’s been incorporated into the choreography,’ she explains, ‘But if you’re not familiar with BSL then you’ll just see movement – if you know sign language, then you’ll see a different show.’ Either way, Lloyd-Jones has worked hard to depict the parts of Lady Macbeth the play doesn’t reach.
‘Her role diminishes after the killing of Duncan, she sort of fades away and we don’t even see her death, we just hear about it,’ says Lloyd- Jones. ‘And I think Lady Macbeth is fascinating, so I wanted to pick her out, colour it in and look at what was going on during all the bits we don’t see.’ (Kelly Apter) ■ Dance Base, 8–27 Aug (not 14, 21), 8pm, £12 (£10). Previews 4–6 Aug, £10 (£8).
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: J A N E H O B S O N
3–10 Aug 2017 THE LIST FESTIVAL 79