Macbeth” Hilariously at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre – front mezz junkies, Theater News

The Toronto Theatre Review: Goblins:Macbeth – A Spontaneous Theatre Creation at Tarragon Theatre Toronto

By Ross

“Don’t You Want Me Baby” plays loud and clear when walking into Goblins:Macbeth at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. The stage is pretty black-box bare, with odds and ends lying about like someone has been rummaging around the props department storage closet. Indeed that might be the case, as three black-clad Goblins wander about the theatre, inspecting and deciding how this will all go down in a “can I use this” kinda of way. I’m not sure what the 80s music choices have to do with these three and their obsession with the “Complete Works of William Shakespeare“, a book that one carries around in a bag as if it were a religious manual of the greatest importance (which it sorta is to me). But that song’s lyrics did, ultimately, resonate within, as this fantastically funny and sharply smart staging of Shakespeare’s Macbeth gets underway. It turns out that I do want this, baby, very much indeed.

Created most expertly by Rebecca Northan & Bruce Horak of Spontaneous Theatre, this unique unfolding of that deliciously devilish Scottish play, with background music by Ellis Lalonde, is a feast that keeps on giving. The three wisely created Goblins, going by the names Wug, Kragva, and Moog, are here to unpack a few myths that hang around their necks. Specifically, all those horrible stereotypes that Tolkien, that “asshole”, misrepresented in mainstream Middle Earth media. The three are clearly bothered by it all and what we think of them. So they directly try to alter our perspective, informing us on a few tracks about things we didn’t know about them, like gender and their natural proclivities, all hilariously unpacked directly for our enlightenment. But their main task, it seems, after conferring with an improv witch who is want of some wine, is to connect, learn, and engage with our culture, utilizing theatre and a tale from that thick “document” that is held up to high esteem by these three.

After a bit of interruption by a few technicians – a grave “unsafe” mistake, one might think as the play pushes forward – the Goblins dive into their attempt to learn about the human experience, naturally by engaging with Shakespeare’s Macbeth. And dive in, they do, masterfully, I might add. The three, in short work, expertly deliver deliciously developed Shakespearean text, while highlighting their own unique perspective and personality with numerous asides and audience engagements. Two of the three take on almost all of the parts, flipping and hopping from one deliciously designed characterization to another. “Let me try something” French, one states at one point to match the music being orchestrated out to us by the third Goblin with heartbeat a-thumping. I also believe I witnessed a Texan Banquo magnificently strutting clear and true across that well-manned stage to a hilariously deadly end. All done so well after creating one of the most touching father/son dynamics that I have witnessed in this play.

I wasn’t able to keep track of each of their names and the parts they took on, but thanks to the wildly authentic masks created by Composite Effects (HBO’s “Game of Thrones“), with costumes delightfully designed by Philip Edwards and lighting by Anton DeGroot (Theatre Calgary’s Noises Off!), I stayed fully engaged in this unraveling. But know this, as created by Calgary’s Spontaneous Theatre, Goblins:Macbeth is fantastically well-balanced, perfectly delivered, and magically unpacked. With comedy and drama with equal importance, the improv-dishing, wisely wicked asides along with all those deliciously intense monologues really do find their clever magic. “Am I marching alone?” one Goblin asks the collective whole, as they engage with the branch-waving army that is secretly approaching Dunsinane. It’s a “f*cking loophole” formula that works wonderfully well with the text and the structuring, elevating the must-see theatrical event into something wondrously funny, wildly creative, and hilariously smart. It really does hit all the marks required.

“No killing! No killing!” Just pretend, they remind themselves, as the nobly depicted titular Thane who rises fast and furious carries a weight that matches the text exquisitely, with the others bringing solid and remarkable representations mashed together with comic bits of questioning and philosophizing. It’s a high-concept Macbeth, expertly delivered most impressively by the Goblins, that brings laughter and engagement at a quick 90-minute pace. “So that was theatre,” they state, looking for the point and finding it in our united joyful reaction in a quick heartbeat. And you will too as this might be the ultimate point. So make your way to Tarragon Theatre, and catch the shouldn’t-be-missed Goblins:Macbeth before the reality of the world takes over and this fantastic fantasy foray with Shakespearean proportions disappears into the night.

Goblin:Macbeth runs until October 27 at Tarragon Theatre Toronto. Tickets and information are available here.