A performance of Sh!t-faced Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” featuring one intoxicated actor. Credit: Courtesy of Columbus Association for the Performing Arts
William Shakespeare’s works have long been reenacted on stage, but a new interpretation features a twist: one intoxicated actor amongst a sober cast.?
The Sh!t-faced Shakespeare traveling tour will bring its production of “Macbeth” to Columbus at the Southern Theatre, located at 21 E. Main St., Friday at 8 p.m. The cast rehearses the show as written, but before each performance, one actor drinks until intoxication prior to taking the stage, according to cast members.?
“Shakespeare wrote things for the common person,” said Chelsea Titchenell, the actress who plays Banquo — Macbeth’s loyal confidant. “Shakespeare’s for everyone. The stories, the themes — they’re for everyone, and [we’re] trying to embrace that piece of it. The drinking sort of allows people to approach it in that mindset, and I don’t think that there are opportunities like that as often in other productions.”
Titchenell said the process of getting an actor drunk prior to the performance is a slow and steady process.?
“A few hours before the show starts, we slowly get some alcohol into one person,” Titchenell said. “Everybody else who is in the show is stone cold sober, so it is just this one person who is going to wreak some havoc wherever their heart takes them, but they do have an actual role within the show. So, sometimes they’ll kind of stay on script and then pivot, and then other times, they’ll kind of go in a totally different direction.”?
Titchenell said the goal is to support the storyline while embracing the unpredictable, sometimes chaotic nature of the performance.?
Noelle Scarlett, who alternates with Titchenell in the role of Banquo, said Sh!t-faced Shakespeare productions are an abridged version of Shakespeare’s works and run 60 to 90 minutes.?
The actor who will be drinking on performance night alternates on a rotating schedule, Scarlett said. The cast also has a backup plan in place if an actor does not feel comfortable drinking on the day of a performance.
“If, for whatever reason, someone is physically not feeling well, we take this very seriously,” Scarlett said. “If someone’s also, emotionally, having a rough day or just not in a good place — if they are not feeling like it is safe or wise for them to drink — then we do not push that, and we have someone else that can be the backup as well. So, we do have the schedule in advance and we do know ahead of time.”?
Scarlett said the turn that the show will take when showcasing a drunk actor depends entirely on which actor is chosen to drink.?
“Every person as a drinker is different,” Scarlett said. “I’m someone that, now that I’ve been doing it for a long time, and it sounds silly, but you actually can become a better actor [when] drunk. You can work to be better at it. My general tendency, when I first started, is I truly could say all of my lines, despite being inebriated, and I had to push myself to go a little bit off the script, because we obviously want the drunk actor to insinuate some chaos or take the plot a little bit off the reins.”?
While on stage, Titchenell said it is crucial for sober actors to adapt and meet the drinker where they are to provide the best show possible for the audience.
“I really try to embrace what is happening on stage, but I also go back to, ‘Where is my character at?’” Titchenell said. “Shakespeare, in my opinion, is something that, at this point, I think people feel alienated from in a lot of ways. My hope is always that the humor in it and the chaos in it is something that feels very human to people.”?
Titchenell said she hopes the production makes Shakespeare feel more accessible to audiences.
“We want people to have fun, and we want people to feel those serious moments when they’re happening,” Titchenell said. “It’s just making it so that people learn to enjoy theater. Some of the people that we have come, it’s maybe their first time seeing a show. We’re creating an atmosphere where they feel welcomed into it [and] where they feel engaged in it.”?
Scarlett echoed this thought and said the cast of “Macbeth” aims to ignite a new love for theater in attendees.?
“The world is heavy and the world is hard, and if we can bring joy and laughter to people in any capacity, that’s very powerful and very important,” Scarlett said.
Scarlett said she encourages attendees to take part in the boozy affair themselves, if they so choose.??
“Ahead of the show, we encourage people to get drinks,” Scarlett said. “Even if the theater does not allow patrons to bring drinks into the theater, people have the space, before and then during the intermission of the show, to get a drink.”?
Titchenell recalled a particularly fun moment from a production of “Hamlet,” in which she said the intoxicated actor decided mid-production to swap roles with a sober actor on stage — refusing to proceed with the show until they got their way.?
Scarlett said, because of the lighthearted nature of the production, Sh!t-faced Shakespeare serves as a great introduction to Shakespeare’s work.?
“For some people, it’s actually the first theatrical production they’ve ever seen,” Scarlett said. “That’s pretty common for a lot of our audience. So, to be able to introduce them to that space and also get them to a point where they’re laughing at pure Shakespeare when there is no drunk chaos happening on the stage — that’s one of our favorite moments as actors.”?
Tickets for Friday’s production of Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: “Macbeth” can be purchased on the website, starting at $42.75, including fees.
