Goblins makes sense of bloody macbeth

By Bridget Stringer-Holden

“Honestly, this is the first time I ever understood that damn play.”

That’s something Goblin: Macbeth co-creator Bruce Horak heard often from audience members after the Shakespeare adaptation’s initial run in Calgary.

“And it took some goblins to enlighten us,” Horak says in a phone interview with the Straight

The son of a high school English teacher, Horak considers himself lucky to have grown up with an understanding of Shakespeare.

“I think the first time I ever read [Macbeth] was in a comic book,” he says.

One of the lessons about Shakespeare’s work that stuck with him is that it’s a play for a reason—you have to get up and do it, it has to be performed.

“That’s really what the goblins do for the first time as they put on the play,” Horak says. “There really is an energy in the liveness of theatre that you can’t get anywhere else.”

At the beginning of Goblin: Macbeth, goblins encounter The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and decide to take over a theatre. They kidnap the lighting technician, get an audience, and start acting out Macbeth—the one with all the blood, of course.

“They find humans fascinating, they don’t understand theatre,” Horak explains. “They perform Shakespeare for the very first time to sort of figure out how humans do theatre, and why.”

Horak finds the goblins to be adorable creatures, and sees the idea of looking at humanity through the eyes of a monster intriguing.

“You see the monstrosity of humanity, especially in a show like Macbeth, which is all about ambition, and the dark side of human nature,” he says. “And goblins embodying that, you hear the verse for the first time...and I think it highlights the humanity that’s within all of us.”

Goblin: Macbeth will also be an interactive experience, although Horak assures that participation is voluntary and that no one is singled out—“par- ticipation lite,” as he calls it.

“People often think that we’re choosing the victim, and that’s never the case,” he says. “It’s only ever to the level that you’re comfortable with.”

Rebecca Northan, who runs Spontaneous Theatre, is no stranger to involving audiences in her work. Northan and Horak started doing Shakespeare-in-thePark together, and have since mounted a variety of shows, including one that incorporated mask work. This is where they discovered the Hollywood-grade silicone masks used in Goblin: Macbeth

In February 2021, the artistic director of The Shakespeare Company shared with Northan how stressed he was because a two-person Macbeth show had dropped out at the last minute due to a COVID infection.

“And Rebecca made the cheeky comment, as she often does, ‘Well, it’s a good thing you know a bunch of improvisers, we can help you out’,” Horak says.

And thus, Goblin: Macbeth was created.

Even though they had mere weeks to pull together the unconventional interpretation of the Scottish play, Horak says that he and Northan joke that it’s really been 25 years in the making.

Musician and puppeteer Ellis Lalonde was brought on as the third goblin, and to provide the live music. Goblin: Macbeth ran twice in Calgary, and will now be featured in Vancouver’s iconic Bard on the Beach. Local actress and Bard veteran Colleen Wheeler will step into Northan’s role for the summer.

“Colleen brings a totally different vibe to it than Rebecca does,” Horak says. He highlights the improvisation element within each show, with audience interaction that creates moments of levity that aren’t as common with traditional renditions of Shakespeare.

“I had a playwriting teacher who once remarked that there are no original ideas,” Horak shares, noting that Macbeth itself is not original, nor is Macbeth in masks. “You will find yourself plagiarizing other people, but the important thing is that what you are about to say has been said before, but never in your voice. That moment in the theatre, that is totally authentic and will never happen again—there is no recording, it’s just there in the moment, and then it’s gone.”

That ephemerality is what Horak finds most rewarding, especially in a time where everything is broadcast and set in digital stone for all eternity.

“It’s getting to perform for live people—gather in a room and pass 90 minutes together, not thinking about the troubles of the world and being transported into a story,” he says. “You just can’t get that on Paramount+. And that’s something that the goblins come to understand through the course of the play—why should you gather together and tell the story?” GS

Goblin: Macbeth is at Bard on the Beach’s Howard Family Stage in Vanier Park from August 19 to September 30.