Shakespeare in the streets is coming to Mile End

Montreal author Heather O’Neill and POP Montreal will be presenting a re-imagined Shakespeare-in-the-streets performance of MacBeth co-starring Joe Bagel and Dakota Jamal. The Shakespeare play is being staged on the back of a moving truck — with music, trees, smoke machines, costumes and witches on bicycles — that will roll through Mile End on Saturday, Aug. 29, 7 p.m. The procession will start out at Parc St-Viateur (525 Bloomfield) and end on Esplanade next to Jeanne-Mance Parc at 9 p.m.

“Macbeth: A Reimagining on the Streets is a grand, wild, shoe-string budget theatrical happening,” reads the event page. “The stage will always be moving so audiences can emerge on their balconies and porches to view the spectacle while social distancing. Only the major scenes of the play will be re-enacted, so each audience member will find themselves in the climax of the action of this iconic play. These scenes have been entirely rewritten in modern language to include contemporary themes and explosive humour.”

Lady MacBeth will be portrayed by Dakota Jamal, a stage and screen actor who has appeared in Xavier Dolan films; Joe Bagel (of (Trapped in Elon’s Mansion… fame) will play MacBeth and Heather O’Neill (who is also directing) co-stars as one of the “Weird Sisters.” The artistic director behind the realization of the concept is Montreal artist and filmmaker Arizona O’Neill.

From the event page:

“We felt a desperate need to perform live before this hard summer was over. Shakespeare himself lived through three plagues and was no stranger to theatres being shuttered. During these times he wrote plays and performed outside typical theatrical venues. In this spirit our play will recreate the roving nature of a Renaissance theatrical troupe. We have chosen Macbeth because of its claustrophobia and also as a means to explore its feminist elements.

“The play will be part clown show, part performance art. It will be street theatre at its best. It is the perfect time for a Shakespeare play to find a way to be recreated in these times of pandemic. We are eschewing the large budgets that hamper the meaning of Shakespeare and returning it to its punk rock survivalist roots.”

Find more details and RSVP via POP Montreal here.

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