Double Double, Vodka & Trouble

The New South Wales University Theatrical Society (NUTS) lived up to its acronymized name on Tuesday the 24th of September, holding a delightfully chaotic opening night for its annual production of ‘Drunk Shakespeare’, with this year’s play being ‘Drunk Macbeth’. Noise was generously gifted two tickets to watch the production at the Esme Timbery Creative Practices Lab, which began with a touching tribute to the venue’s namesake, award-winning Bidjigal artist Esme Timbery, during the Acknowledgement of Country.

It was our first time witnessing a show like this. As the name suggests, this production has one key difference from the version of Macbeth that many of us would have studied in high school: every night, three cast members are selected to do shots at random moments during the play, signalled by the Director Bora Celebi ringing a bell from the front row. In hindsight, this was a small tease of the role the audience was expected to play in assisting with the derailment of the play, with our reactions testing the actors’ resolve to not break character.

As someone who struggles to remember and recite their own basic coffee order correctly sometimes (large matcha latte with soy milk, thank you so much for asking), I applaud the entire cast for not only committing to memory the entirety of the play’s lengthy script, but also for the sober cast members being able to maintain their composure and improvise where necessary while their castmates are doing shots during a serious and dramatic monologue. Celebi told Noise after the play that this talent can be attributed to the improv training the cast went through during the rehearsal process to account for and respond to any unexpected moments during the production.

The play felt very normal for the first half-hour or so, before the shots really began to kick in. If I didn’t know the title, I could have been fooled into believing it was a normal Shakespeare production; clearly well rehearsed, with a characteristic Shakespearean overperforming and posh accents being complimented by lighting, staging, costuming and set design that exceeded my expectations of student theatre. Credit must especially be given to the costuming team, (Ana Dougenis, Abi Pierce & Larisa Cronin) for finding the perfect middle ground between Shakespearean attire and the ‘New Arrivals’ section at Dangerfield, reminding the audience that pleather corsets, flowy blouses and tartan skirts are timeless.

But any belief that this was a normal Shakespearean production went away after one key moment, wherein Drunk Macbeth stopped being a mere theatre production and started being a shared joke between the actors and audience. A single pivotal moment of comedy where it was most unexpected, which could not have been more perfectly timed even if it was scripted:

“Your royal father’s murdered.”

Following that line, in the middle of what is meant to be one of the most dramatic moments in the entire play, Malcolm (Jay Rushwood) forgot their line, the effects of their inebriation being apparent for the first time. An extended pause followed, that would have been excruciating were it not so self-aware, before Malcolm, calling upon their improv training, responded to the news of their father’s death with a nonchalant “damn, by who?” In this moment, it became clear to both the cast and audience that permission had been granted to break character whenever they wanted, resulting in numerous instances of the cast laughing along with the audience as many more alcohol-related mishaps ensued. Determined to document her castmates in a Kris Jenner-esque fashion, Lucy Gray, another drunk cast member portraying the role of Lady Macduff, at one point unsubtly peered from behind the stage curtains to take photographs of the unfolding chaos.

Perhaps the production’s greatest highlight was the fact that one of the three Witches, who are all nameless in the play, was chosen to drink during the play. The Second Witch (Abi Pierce) was the very definition of a ‘fun drunk.’ Pierce was an agent of chaos throughout the play, willfully taking on a secondary role as an omniscient voice calling out to the cast and audience, much to the amusement of everyone involved. During a death scene, Pierce threw a red handkerchief over their face, thoughtfully explaining to the audience that “the red means death!”, just in case anyone was unaware. Later on, Pierce dropped a large drink bottle from their sitting place in the aisles, expertly, albeit unconvincingly, reassuring us that the loud thud was “just the wind.” This was then vollied by Siwald (Finn Sargeant) licking their finger and holding it up to check which direction the wind was definitely blowing inside the theatre.

Macbeth as a production is arguably engineered for Lady Macbeth to be the standout role, with this iteration being no exception. By far the most complex and difficult character to portray in the play, Isla Harris’ performance deserves a shoutout for keeping up her fake Scottish accent and poised demeanour throughout the entire play without any breaks to her character.

I only wish I got to experience a version of the production with one of the more ‘main’ characters getting drunk, as it would have been hilarious to see Shakespeare’s famously long-winded and flowery monologues being colloquially ‘remixed’ under the influence of alcohol. For example, the dramatic (foam) sword fighting sequence at the end of the play between Macbeth (Ines SL) and Macduff (Ana Dougenis) went uninterrupted, and I can’t help but wonder how that might’ve gone off the rails on another night. After the play, Director Celebi told Noise that the actor playing the titular Macbeth, was in fact elected to drink during the play’s closing night. Given that tickets for the rest of the production had fully sold out at that point, the FOMO was real.

‘Drunk Macbeth’ ran until Saturday the 28th of September, and based on my experience on the 24th, next year’s production of ‘Drunk Shakespeare’ will most definitely not be something to be missed. In the meantime, NUTS is performing a (not drunk) production of Pride and Prejudice this week. Support student theatre!