For Immediate Release: August 1, 2005
Media Contact: Jared Reed, Curio Theatre Company, 610.453.7001

WHAT: Curio Theatre Company presents MACBETH
WHEN: August 24th-September 24th inclusive
WHERE: Walnut Street Studio Theatre 5, AND transferring to Calvary Church at 48th and Baltimore Avenue, University City.

MACBETH Curio Theatre Company presents Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, MACBETH, from August 24th-September 11th in the Walnut Street Studio 5 Theatre, (Weds-Sat 8pm, and Sunday 4pm), and from September 15th – 24th at Calvary Center for Culture and Community, (Thursday-Saturday at 8pm).

Tickets priced $22 regular, $19 for students and seniors.

Curio’s innovative production is just 1 hour and 40 minutes in length with no intermission, featuring, Aetna Gallagher, Paul Kuhn, Brian McCann, Jared Reed, and Keren White, directed by Gay Carducci. With vibrant sound and lighting design, shadow play and sword-work, this gripping production is suitable for ages 11 and up.

Please visit our website at www.curiotheatre.org, email boxoffice@curiotheatre.org, or call 215-525-1350 for information on group rates and school matinees.

MACBETH PLOT
Exploring the theory of destiny, and the depths of ambition, corruption, and power, this work introduces some of Shakespeare’s most complicated and enigmatic characters. The Thane of Macbeth, triumphant in the Scottish war against England is justly rewarded for his toils with a promotion, foreseen by three witches in the mists of the battlefield just moments before the announcement is made. The witches have further pronounced that Macbeth will become King hereafter, and that his compatriot and friend, Banquo, will be father to a line of Kings.

Driven by the desire to see the prophecy fulfilled, Macbeth and his wife dispute over the need to physically make Macbeth’s apparent destiny come true. Lady Macbeth states that they have been told what is possible if they will act to remove the present King. Macbeth is wracked with guilt at the prospect of killing the present King of Scotland, Duncan, so soon after he has received an honored promotion service at battle. His wife’s cajoling combined with his own ambition soon overcomes his doubtful morality, however.

In his own castle, Macbeth murders Duncan in his sleep, kills his guards in a fit of peak, and implicates the King’s heirs in the deadly plot. The King’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain flee in fear of their lives to join forces with the English against Macbeth who succeeds to the throne in their absence. Macduff, loyal supporter of Duncan and his sons also leaves for England.

Macbeth proceeds to descend into the mire of corruption and misdoing, murdering his best friend, Banquo, in an attempt to turn the tide of the prophecy away from Banquo’s offspring, and attacking Macduff’s castle in his absence. Both Macbeth and his wife spiral almost seamlessly into madness, generated from their growing guilt pitched in an internal battle against overwhelming ambition. By Act IV, as he sends murderers to kill Lady Macduff and her children, Macbeth states quite simply to his wife that he has come so far with his schemes that to stop or attempt to right his wrongs now would be as much effort as to continue. “I am in blood/ Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o'er.” In the next and final Act, Lady Macbeth is reduced from a pinnacle of strength and matrimonial support, to a gibbering, sleepwalking wreck and she kills herself as the English troops close in on the castle at Dunsinane.

Just as the witches’ prophecies pull Macbeth up at the beginning of the play, so they tear him down at the end of the work. Having predicted his ascension to the throne, and thus precipitated the murders that indeed won Macbeth the crown, the three crones predict his death, assuring Macbeth that he will not be defeated until a forest marches against the castle, and a man who “was not of woman born” draws his sword against him. Macbeth is quick to take these latter forecasts literally on the strength of the previous truths and thus he meets his doom, standing firm as the English forces, united with Duncan’s heirs, approach his battlements disguised against Birnham Woods from the distance by carrying tree branches before them. Even as his blows fall on the tyrant, Macduff reveals that he was born by Caesarian section, and therefore was not born naturally by a woman.

Macbeth, both a hero and a villain, is laid to rest at last.

CURIO'S FULL 2005-6 SEASON

Macbeth is the first of four shows making up Curio Theatre’s first season in Philadelphia. All four shows will be performed at either Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5 and/or in Calvary Church at 48th and Baltimore Avenue.

Macbeth, By William Shakespeare
Walnut ~ Aug 24th-Sept 11th
Calvary ~ Sept 15th-Sept 24th

The Frog Prince, Adapted from the Grimm Fairy Tale
Calvary ~ Nov 17th-Dec 10th

Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, By Douglas Adams
Calvary ~ Feb 16th-March 4th
Walnut ~ March 8th - 26th

The King Stag, By Carlo Gozzi
Calvary ~ May 11th-May 27th
Walnut ~ May 31st-June 18th

With thanks to Bernard Havard and the Walnut Street Theatre, Dr. Rich Kirk and the Calvary Center for Culture and Community, Amy Murphy and the Arden Theatre, Dr. Lucy Kerman and the University of Penn, Lewis Wendell and University City District, Suzanne Roberts, Penelope Reed and Hedgerow Theatre, for the parts they have played in helping Curio and this first season come about.

GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY ABBRACCIO RESTAURANT, DHALAK's ETHIOPIAN CUISINE and VIENTIANE THAI CAFE.

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