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EDUCATION PACK W R I T T E N BY

202 6 S E A S O N

Jonathan Price & Anna Turner

He pou atua, he pou whenua, he pou tangata. Ko Waitematā te moana Ko Waikōkota te whenua. Ko Te Pou Whakamahara a Māui Tikitiki a Taranga te tohu o te kaha, o te kōrero, o te whakapapa o tēnei wāhi, o tēnei whare. Nau mai e te tī, e te tā ki te whare kōrero, ki te whare whakaari o ASB ki te tahatika o te moana. Mauri tau, mauri ora!

Pouwhakamahara a Māui-Tikitiki-a-Taranga The Memorial Post of Māui the Topknot of Taranga Robert Jahnke ONZM (Ngāi Taharora, Te Whānau a Iritekura, Te Whānau a Rākairoa o Ngāti Porou), 2016 Laminated tōtara and Corten steel Proudly commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company for ASB Waterfront Theatre

The symbols of support, of strength and of guardianship stand fast and proud. The waters of Waitematā ebb and flow against the shores here at Waikōkota, the land upon which we stand. The pou of remembrance to Māui Tikitiki a Taranga stands tall as a beacon of courage, of stories passed down and of the history that connects us all to this place and to this space. We welcome you all from near and far to this house of stories, to the ASB Waterfront Theatre. Mauri tau, mauri ora!

Contents About This Pack Pre-reading and Listening

3 4

About the Play Welcome from ATC Playwright Note from the Director Macbeth in context Synopsis

10 12 14 16 18

Making the Play Director’s Vision and Design Choices Set Lighting Costume Sound and Music The actors, their craft, and the wairua of Macbeth Ensemble Rehearsal Room One Rehearsal Diary Two In The Press

24 28 21 34 36 38 43 44 48 52

Classroom Activities Exploring Kilby-Henson’s Directorial Concept Exploring Character Exploring Design Macbeth and the Jacobean Era Exploring relationship dynamics through features of the text Macbeth and Level One NCEA

56 59 63 67 72 75

About This Pack This education pack is designed to support your exploration of Auckland Theatre Company’s production of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Whether you’re a kaiako preparing lessons, an ākonga studying the play, or simply curious about this work, this resource offers insights into both the original text and this production. This education pack is divided into four sections:

Pre-reading and Listening

This section gives you a structure for working through the pack, so you collect the ideas, quotes and moments you will draw on for the activities and your exam or portfolio.

About the Play

After a welcome from Auckland Theatre Company, this section includes key information about the cast and creatives, essays providing essential context and background information, and a synopsis of the production.

Making the Play

This section takes you behind the scenes with artefacts from the rehearsal room, key design concept insights, and notes to and from the cast, giving you a unique window into the creative process.

Activities

NCEA-linked activities that you can try in your classroom or at home to help you unpack and explore this production of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. These activities support achievement standards across Levels 1, 2, and 3.

Each section builds upon the previous one, but you can also use individual components as standalone resources. The activities are designed to complement the contextual information and production insights, making this pack suitable for both independent study and classroom use. 3

Pre-reading and Listening Prior to reading through this pack, think about implementing the following pre-reading and listening structure to how you unpack the front half of this pack, so that you can collect ideas and information to complete the activities in the back of the pack. As a class: with your teacher as scribe, record what you learnt from the Post Show Forum: • Write down ideas that interest you

• Ideas that interest you • Quotes you think would enrich an answer in an exam • Ideas that link to a specific moment in the performance • Share what you have recorded with your group and discuss what you might have missed.

• Record quotes you think would enrich an answer in your portfolio or exam

• Save your brainstorm notes in a shared space.

• Record moments in the forum that surprised you or provided more context for something you saw on stage.

• You could share these with the whole class, so you have everyone’s ideas to draw from as you complete the activities in the back half of the pack or revise for your exam.

Watch: Macbeth | Trailer In the Activities section of the pack there are classroom exercises and revision questions that help you unpack the following sections of the pack: • Playwright and Director’s Vision and Concepts • Exploring the Characters of the play • Unpacking Design Choices • Working with Shakespeare/Wider Context 4

In groups of four: assign each group member one of the sections above. As you read through the pages associated with each section record the following:

Individual Homework: Ensure that you read all the outlined pages of the pack, so that you can add information if you need to.

PRE-READING AND LISTENING

About The Play Key information about the cast and creatives, essays providing essential context and background information, and a synopsis of the production.

ABOUT THE PLAY

AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS

28 JUL – 22 AUG 2026 Macbeth by William Shakespeare is the sixth production in Auckland Theatre Company’s 2026 season. Written around 1606, it is one of Shakespeare’s shortest and most enduring tragedies. Directed by Benjamin Kilby-Henson, this production began previews on Tuesday 28 July and opened on Thursday 30 July 2026. The production runs for two hours and 30 minutes, including an interval. Macbeth contains depictions of violence and death, self-harm, and the killing of children. It also features haze and smoke, flashing lights and low lighting, sudden loud sound effects, and themes of war and battles. Please switch off all mobile phones and noise-emitting devices. Filming and photography are prohibited, except during the curtain call.

CORE FUNDER:

EXCELLENCE PARTNER:

CAPABILITY PARTNER:

SUPPORTING PARTNERS:

EDUCATION PARTNER:

ABOUT THE PLAY

CAST

CREATIVE

Lennox – Alison Bruce

Playwright – William Shakespeare

Ross – Keagan Carr Fransch

Director – Benjamin Kilby-Henson

Malcolm – Travis Graham

Set Design – Dan Williams

Lady Macduff – Marianne Infante Khee Choy

Lighting Design – Rachel Marlow & Bradley Gledhill, Filament Eleven 11

Macbeth – Mark Mitchinson

Costume Design – Elizabeth Whiting

Macduff – Maaka Pohatu

Composer & Sound Design – Robin Kelly

King Duncan – Robert Pollock

Movement Direction – Katrina George

Banquo – Jeff Szusterman

Vocal Direction – Cherie Moore

Porter – Amanda Tito

Fight Choreographer – Amand Weaver

Donalbain – Lauie Tofa

Props Manager – Emma Aubin

Lady Macbeth – Sara Wiseman

Intimacy Coordinator – Miriama McDowell

Witches – Maxwell Andrews, Elsie Dilworth, Eva Gillespie, Lucy Goer, Harvey Gui, Quinn Hallas, Charlie Kawha Grey, Evelyn Towersey, Lily Williams

Engine Room Assistant Director & Resident Director – Sepelini Mua’au Engine Room Assistant Designer – Talia Pua Education Pack Writer – Jonathan Price, Anna Turner

PRODUCTION

ENSEMBLE

Stage Manager – Keira Howat

Nadine Akimana, Liam Ashby, Christie Blair, Antacia D’Costa, Shayla Hann, Emma Jackson, Saffiya Johnson, Violet King, Molly Last, Erica Latu, Zoe Ysabel, MJ Salesa, Inaya Sinclair, Nesta Vaaelua, Ben Way, Cole Wilkinson, Fred Willans, Nieve Wilson

Assistant Stage Manager – Mozz Smith

Deputy Stage Manager – Eliza Josephson-Rutter Head of Staging – Molloy Head of Electrics – Spencer Earwaker Head of Sound – Sam Clavis Technical Operator – Max Koenig Sound Operator – Joel Orme Microphone Technicians – Lee Huxley & Louis McKendry Flyman – T.J. Haunui Set Construction – Grant Reynolds, Zorp Creative Wardrobe Coordinator – Petra Verweij Wardrobe Sewers – Hanna Coynash & Ann Horner Teaching Artists – Emily Hurley, Connor Magatogia, Richard Sikuea & Isabella Temm Chaperone – Ella Blake Brislen Publicity – Bridget de Launay, de Launay Enterprises Photography – Andi Crown Videography – Daryl Wong 9

Nau mai, haere mai This new production of Macbeth is the third part in my series of the tragedies of William Shakespeare. In this series we are inviting theatre artists to make these classics anew, for the moment we live in now. Shakespeare always has a resonance to the times and so it is with Macbeth. In director Benjamin Kilby-Henson’s version, war is a permanent state. The production design draws references from all wars, past and present. While the unending battles rage, the elites hide underground like rats and fight each other for power with murderous consequences. Our new Macbeth is a political thriller; it speaks to history and the current day, reflecting the everpresent pursuit of power and supremacy of some over others at any cost. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth lust for the throne of Scotland, driven by

supernatural enchantment, naked ambition and ancient hatred. Played by two of our greats in Mark Mitchinson, making a criminally overdue debut with ATC, and Sara Wiseman, they are deliciously unhinged and terrifying. During this season we are presenting nine dedicated performances for schools. Some 5,500 students will attend from all over Auckland and as far afield as Whangārei and Rotorua. This year we are marking 10 years since the opening of ASB Waterfront Theatre, our home. We are blessed to be the custodians of this gorgeous theatre: the place where theatre-makers can play on a big scale and our city can be entertained.

Jonathan Bielski Artistic Director & CEO

ABOUT THE PLAY

Playwright

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English playwright and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, he gained recognition for his plays during the late-16th and early-17th centuries. His works, consisting of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets and several narrative poems, span various genres including tragedy, comedy and history, and have had a profound and enduring impact on literature, theatre and culture. His exploration of universal themes, such as love, jealousy, ambition and human nature, continues to resonate with audiences today, offering profound insights into the human experience. The Tragedy of Macbeth is believed to have been first performed in 1606, most likely as a private performance for King James I at Hampton Court. Its first recorded public performance came some years later, on 20 April 1611 at the Globe Theatre in London, where astrologer Simon Forman was in the audience and left us with a written account of what he saw.

Saying the name of the play in the theatre is a real taboo among theatremakers but the evidence for the curse is mostly conjecture. Theories include real witches cursing the play for their stolen spells and the first-ever Lady Macbeth dying during a performance. However, it is true that an actor was killed in 1672, when real weapons were used rather than prop swords and, in 1947, an actor died while playing the title role. The Astor Place Riots were caused by duelling performances of Macbeth and resulted in at least 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries. In an infamous 1937 production, Laurence Olivier was nearly hit by a falling stage weight, the director and actress portraying Lady Macbeth were nearly involved in a car crash, and stage manager Lilian Baylis actually died during rehearsals. Commentators note that Macbeth is an extremely popular play to stage and more productions create more opportunities for mishaps. This is the first time Auckland Theatre Company has staged Macbeth. Alongside this, the Company has

ABOUT THE PLAY

presented a number of other Shakespeare works, including Julius Caesar, directed by Raymond Hawthorne (1998), Twelfth Night, directed by Michael Hurst (2006), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Ben Crowder and Colin McColl (2012), King Lear, directed by Michael Hurst and Benjamin Kilby-Henson (2023), and, most recently, Romeo & Juliet, directed by Benjamin Kilby-Henson

(2025). In 2008, Auckland Theatre Company’s Summer School presented Shrew’d, written and directed by Margaret-Mary Hollins and adapted from The Taming of the Shrew. In 2015, the Company presented Hamlet, directed by Dominic Dromgoole and Bill Buckhurst, broadcast live from London’s Globe Theatre in partnership with the New Zealand Festival of the Arts.

Note from the Director Benjamin Kilby-Henson

From what we can make out, Macbeth was written in 1606 and less than a year after the attempt to blow up both Parliament and the Scottish King of England, James I.

assassination. The Gunpowder Plot simply wasn’t sportsmanlike. It is remarkable, then, that Shakespeare takes us inside the minds of those the nation had quickly learned to deplore.

While others simplistically villainised Guy Fawkes (and his fellow Gunpowder Plotters) so successfully we still burn his effigy every year on 5 November, Shakespeare went inside the mind of a traitor.

In doing so, Shakespeare gives us the blueprint of the original thriller. It breaks many of the dramaturgical rules of the time. Gone are any subplots – there’s no time. There’s barely time to finish a full sentence: the play employs more elision than any other of Shakespeare’s works. There are two forms of elision working hard to keep things moving: linguistic (“If it were done, when ’tis done, then ’twere well, it were done quickly…”) and structural e lision, whereby key plot events happen off stage or are alluded to only scantily (“He’s already named and gone to Scone…”).

What does it take to contemplate, plan and, then, enact the murder of a leader? And how might that impact the fabric of the mind? Long before psychology entered the lexicon, Shakespeare could already see how murder spawns scorpions of the mind. The Jacobean audience firmly believed their kings were ordained by God. Regicide was a far more shocking and deplorable act than it is in our desensitised world today. Jacobeans were still in the mind-set of warfare aligning with “sport”. There was a common-felt nobility to war and warfare. The defence or the gaining of “deserved” territory was seen as something entirely different from the secrecy and betrayal of plotted

Battles happen above ground on a terrain we never see. Our world exists underground: inside dark tunnels, dripping and echoing. Nothing is clean but hastily gathered possessions still hold value. Technology is anachronistic. A Scotland, yes, but a fantasy Scotland, a black mirror of the one we know. This is a timeless, broken environment that evokes our own world, yet is not.

ABOUT THE PLAY

This world is peopled with those who scurry through tunnels, both physically and inside their minds. The characters trapped in the perpetual night of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s creation can barely utter their darkest thoughts and fears. Although a militant gun-for-hire, Macbeth is deeply poetic in his understanding of human suffering (albeit mostly his own). Perhaps that’s because he’s experienced it all-too firsthand in battle, slicing people from the nave to the chops. His fight is between the deep-feeling poet he might have been in another universe and the down-to-business brute he’s becoming. In the final act, he loses this battle. Our flawed but beloved Lady Macbeth and Macbeth can’t even face the magnitude of what they’re planning; they spend much of the play discussing the murder euphemistically. ”I have done the deed,” wink, wink. Lady Macbeth may end her life chattering continuously but she does so on a loop, recounting the same events over and over, desperately trying to recount the moment she lost her husband irreconcilably, unable to pinpoint the exact moment of their schism. She ends her life in tunnel vision.

We’re escalating the cyclical, intergenerational impact of violence in our production. There’s the premature loss of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s male child (in our world, called Felix, the Latin word for success, we decided), the horrific slaughter of Lady Macduff and her children and Macbeth’s lamentation on ageing while on the hubristic cusp of his own death. The three witches appear as three possessed young children. Eerily reminiscent of World War Two evacuees, they fail to match the post-apocalyptic lens framing the rest of our tunnel world. Representing the cyclical nature of human violence, these gas-masked figures also play Fleance and Lady Macduff’s daughters. Banquo’s nearmurdered son Fleance, as prophesied, is likely to violently take the crown from Malcolm. If Romeo & Juliet is a panorama of love, then Macbeth is a panorama of violence. The witches come back at the end of our production because violence is not over and will never be. If you hurt me then I hurt you and you exact revenge. And so it goes, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...

Macbeth in context Scholars estimate that Macbeth was written in 1606, at the height of Shakespeare’s popularity. It is not surprising, then, that Shakespeare, ever the cultural magpie, seems to have written Macbeth in direct response to what was happening in England at the time. Firstly, England had a new ruler, King James I, who was Scottish. The new king was not as remote a figure to Shakespeare as you might think; James I offered his patronage to Shakespeare’s theatre company, who changed their name to The King’s Men. Given his new royal patron, plus the real possibility of an invitation to perform at court, Shakespeare had plenty of motivation to write a play on a Scottish subject, and the reasons don’t stop there. Many Scots followed James I to London, increasing their representation amongst theatre audiences. Furthermore, the king traced his ancestry back to the historical Banquo and was also keenly interested in witchcraft. In fact, he personally attended witch trials and had written a book on the theory and practice of sorcery called Daemonologie which was reissued upon his ascension to the throne.

For many in Shakespeare’s audience, then, witchcraft was not a superstition; it was as real and commonplace as religious truth. Shakespeare had toyed with supernatural elements in other plays – the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for example – but in Macbeth more than any other play they impinge on the peace and order of society. Audiences would not have questioned the reality of the witches in Macbeth. Rather, the question is the truth of their riddles. Which brings us to a final consideration about the sacredness of the social hierarchy in Jacobean times. The witches – and later Lady Macbeth – spur Macbeth to commit an act which was unambiguously evil in the eyes of Shakespeare’s audience: regicide, the murder of the monarch. To a London audience, the Macbeths’ plot would have chimed in memory with yet another recent and widely condemned crime against the social order: the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 (which we still commemorate on Guy Fawkes Night). Morality in Macbeth is relatively blackand-white. Duncan, as Shakespeare writes him, was a fine leader. The

ABOUT THE PLAY

wrongfulness of his murder is not questioned and the price for killing the king is death. With Macbeth, Shakespeare investigates not the morality of murder, but the psychology instead. He gives his audience access to the thoughts of a king killer, a terrorist.

As Director Benjamin Kilby-Henson states: “Shakespeare took the stance of wondering: ’What goes on inside the mind of a traitor? What does it take to contemplate, plan and then enact the murder of a leader? And how might that impact the fabric of the mind?”

Synopsis

ACT I King Duncan receives the report of a wounded soldier: the battle against the Norwegians has been won, thanks to the bravery of Macbeth. Ross tells the king that the Thane of Cawdor is a traitor. On their return march, Macbeth and his friend Banquo, victorious generals in King Duncan’s army, encounter three witches. The witches prophesy that Macbeth will become first Thane of Cawdor, then King. They also promise, paradoxically, that Banquo will father a line of kings.

Macbeth is quickly made Thane of Cawdor by King Duncan, fulfilling the witches’ first prophecy. Encouraged, Macbeth writes to inform his wife, Lady Macbeth, who is enlivened by his message and then his arrival in person. King Duncan comes to stay at Macbeth’s castle. Macbeth is stalling, unsure if he really wants to murder the king, but Lady Macbeth convinces him to continue, and they plan to murder the king and pin the blame on the royal attendants.

ABOUT THE PLAY

ACT II

ACT III

Despite an ominous vision of a bloody dagger, Macbeth kills King Duncan and frames the servants. When he fails to leave the real bloodied daggers alongside the guards, as planned, Lady Macbeth must do it for him.

Lord and Lady Macbeth are crowned King and Queen of Scotland. Macduff does not attend the ceremony. Still threatened by Banquo’s role in the witches’ prophecy, Macbeth arranges to have his former friend killed along with his son, Fleance. Banquo confirms he will attend the feast that evening, after riding with Fleance during the day. Macbeth manipulates two men into murdering Banquo. The assassins succeed in killing Banquo, but Fleance escapes.

The next morning, the castle wakes to a knocking at the door, and the plot is jeopardised by the unexpected arrival of Macduff (Thane of Fife) and nobleman Lennox. Everyone appears shocked at the death of King Duncan. Macbeth impulsively kills Duncan’s servants before they wake, out of rage, he says, to prevent them from defending their innocence. Donalbain and Malcolm, the two sons of the king, fear for their safety and flee the country, making them suspects. In the power vacuum, Macbeth is made King.

ACT IV

That night, at the royal banquet, Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost. His response, raving and shouting at an empty chair, disturbs his guests. Lady Macbeth demands that they leave, lying that her husband is afflicted by a condition. Afterwards, Lennox and Ross discuss the state of the country, the suspicions that Fleance murdered his father, and where their loyalties should now lie. Lennox suspects Macbeth, and reveals that Macduff, absent from the banquet, has gone to England to find allies to fight against Macbeth. (The interval falls here, at the end of the first half.)

Macbeth seeks the witches for guidance, and they grant him three visions, each with a prophecy: beware Macduff; no man "of woman born" can harm Macbeth; and Macbeth will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill. Though alarmed by the first, Macbeth is bolstered by the second and third prophecies, which appear to confirm his invincibility: Birnam Wood and Dunsinane Hill are separated by about 20 kilometres.

ABOUT THE PLAY

ACT V Lennox tells Macbeth that Macduff has fled to England, and Macbeth vows to murder his family. Increasingly paranoid, he sends assassins to murder all the inhabitants of Macduff’s castle. However, Macduff himself is absent, conferring with Duncan’s heir, Prince Malcolm. Malcolm and Macduff join forces to revolt against Macbeth, and Ross brings the awful news that Macduff’s entire family has been killed. Macduff is provoked to vengeance by Prince Malcolm, who has secured the support of the English King Edward.

At the royal palace of Dunsinane, a doctor has been called on account of Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking and sleeptalking. Plagued with guilt, she has entered a kind of trance, attempting repeatedly to wash blood from her hands, and the doctor is alarmed by her confessions.

The English army, led by Macduff and Malcolm, marches ever closer and lays siege to Dunsinane, the soldiers cutting down branches from Birnam Wood to use as camouflage. This fulfils one of the witches’ prophecies. Macbeth is told that Lady Macbeth has killed herself and that Birnam Wood has begun to move towards them. In battle, Donalbain is slain by Macbeth. Then Macduff and Macbeth do battle, and Macduff tells Macbeth that he was born by caesarean section, not "of woman born", sealing Macbeth’s fate. Macduff kills Macbeth, the rebel forces are victorious, and Malcolm is named King of Scotland. The Witches meet again, and again, and again, and again…

Making the Play This section takes you behind the scenes with artefacts from the rehearsal room, key design concept insights, and notes to and from the cast, giving you a unique window into the creative process.

MAKING THE PLAY

Director’s Vision and Design Choices Part of a director’s job is to choose ideas or themes that their production will focus on. Ideally, all the choices made by the design team will then support and highlight these ideas. With ATC’s contemporary staging of Macbeth, director Benjamin KilbyHenson is interested in exploring two key ideas: 1. The cost of violence on the mind of the perpetrator. 2. The cyclical nature of violence. In this section, we will begin to unpack how directorial and design choices help to communicate the key ideas to the audience.

IDEA ONE: THE COST OF VIOLENCE ON THE MIND Shakespeare’s Macbeth shows how acts of violence have a negative impact on the minds of those that commit it, leading to an inescapable spiral of guilt, paranoia and, ultimately, the willingness to do more violence. 24

Long, long, before psychology entered the lexicon, Shakespeare could already see how murder – performed while the victim sleeps in “double trust” – can only lead to scorpions of the mind. – Dir. Benjamin Kilby-Henson

Supporting Choice: An Underground World Because of current events, today’s audience is primed to think about violence on an international scale; violence affecting whole communities. Despite Macbeth’s backdrop of war, Director Benjamin Kilby-Henson wanted a way of focussing the audience’s attention on the individual scale, to help them think more about violence at a personal level. One solution was to create a fantastic underground world for the characters to inhabit. By locating the war “above ground”, it is removed from the action of the scenes. The underground serves as a hideout, a respite from the battle. Therefore, violence committed underground is of a different kind; it is a threat to the social order, occurring unseen in the shadows of

MAKING THE PLAY

tunnels rather than the open space of the battlefield. This makes the final moments of the play even more impactful. When Macbeth’s stronghold is besieged, his actions have led to the ultimate breakdown of the border between safety and battle. The other element [we’re thinking about in the lighting design] is the “above” element, which is the natural world, and how that can come into the space. And then there is a point in the show where we no longer see that and all of the light sources are artificial, and feel a real sense of danger. That’s the war coming in from above. – Lighting Designer Rachel Marlow. Furthermore, interior spaces such as Dan Williams’ underground set can be made to reflect the inner states of mind of certain characters so their minds are made “visible” to the audience. This is a technique which draws from the artistic movement of Expressionism (see Expressionism info box). Drawing inspiration from Hollywood horrors, thrillers and also videogames, Dan Williams has designed a set which is a rusty, damp, echoey tangle of

tunnels and corridors. When starkly lit from low angles by lighting designers Rachel Marlow and Bradley Gledhill, not only does this provide a shadowy environment for creating spooky images, it also blurs the line between which stage pictures are real and which are in Macbeth’s head. In a particularly clever gesture, Dan Williams also arranged the tunnel openings so that they echo the pattern of the gas-masks worn by the witches’ children: Macbeth literally cannot escape their haunting gaze. Stylistic choices play an important role in making dark subject matter accessible to an audience. Benjamin Kilby-Henson is determined that the audience can “relish” the more horrific aspects of the production. Sound designer and composer Robin Kelly is supporting this with a score that references contemporary film and, from the mid-way point, even death metal. Something that Robin brought to the table is how in some horror films the shock of the tonal change in the music is a jump-scare of its own. […] The sonic world cracks alongside Macbeth’s psyche. – Dir. Benjamin Kilby-Henson 25

IDEA TWO: THE CYCLICAL NATURE OF VIOLENCE In Shakespeare’s text, violence only leads to more violence. Benjamin KilbyHenson wanted to build on this theme, exploring how this cycle of violence can continue even across generations.

Supporting Choice: Editing Shakespeare’s text As he did with last year’s Romeo & Juliet, Kilby-Henson has edited and rearranged parts of Shakespeare’s text. Most noticeably, the witches reappear at the end, reinforcing the idea of a cycle.

We’re escalating the impact violence has on generations in our production. The three witches possess three young children, eerily reminiscent of World War Two evacuees, representing the cyclical nature of human violence. These gas-masked figures also play Fleance, Banquo’s near-murdered son who, as prophesied, will most likely take the crown from Malcolm (most likely through violence) and Lady Macduff’s daughters […] Future branches of a family tree who will never join the solidarity of Birnam Wood. – Dir. Benjamin Kilby-Henson

Those witches come back at the end of our production because that violence is not over, and will never be. If you hurt me three times, then I’ll hurt you three times, and then there must be an other to hurt, three times again. And so on it goes. – Dir. Benjamin Kilby-Henson

Costume designer Elizabeth Whiting is using a 1940s style for the children’s costumes, displacing them in time from the setting of the play and further linking them with the supernatural. The children are not only the victims of the events of the play, they are also the figures that haunt and judge the actions of the characters.

Supporting Choice: Linking the witches with children

These are just a few examples of the director’s key ideas and the ways the designers have supported them. When watching the production, you might find different ideas and evidence for them. This is actually a good thing! For your own thinking, you could consider the following prompts as starting points:

One particularly grim aspect of Shakespeare’s text is the murder of multiple children. In his casting and costuming choices (costumes by Elizabeth Whiting) Kilby-Henson amplifies the presence of children, 26

alive and dead, to remind us that the impact of violence ripples through past, present and future.

MAKING THE PLAY

• What sound effects are used in the production and what impact do they have? • How is a sense of community shown in the production, and how is it disrupted?

Below images top to bottom: Nosferatu (1922, dir. F.W. Murnau); The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Robert Wiene); Macbeth Lighting Concept Image (Bradley Gledhill and Rachel Marlow)

• How “Scottish” – or not – is this production, and why do you think that is? • Is there a film that this production reminds you of? Does this production touch on similar ideas or themes? Expressionism Expressionism was a prominent style of painting, literature, drama and film from the late 19th to early 20th century where artists sought to depict the inner experiences of their subjects rather than an accurate, external reality. One common expressionistic approach was to visually distort or heighten the settings in which characters appeared, so that the exterior world becomes an extension of an inner state of mind. Given its success in evoking negative mental states such as fear and paranoia, Expressionism has had a close relationship with the supernatural and horror. This can be seen in early expressionist films such as The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari or Nosferatu and continues in horror and thrillers today.

Set SET DESIGN — DAN WILLIAMS The starting point was a shared one for the whole design team: to amplify the fantasy and legend of the story rather than anything too literal. As the team put it, the aim was to "find a world that gave us access to having a lot of fun inside all of this grim, murky, murderous material, twisting the word fun into foul and grimy and disgusting and dirty and dark. That is the kind of relish we can enter this work with." That led to a community who have fled underground, away from the wars raging above.

"You can’t have a sewer without filthy water, so our design has a very big gesture of central water, a trough that runs out into a central tunnel." "The ASB Waterfront Theatre is super wide. I wanted an almost second proscenium inside the world that brought everything down a little bit, creating a fake perspective so it feels smaller than it actually is, to help that underground feeling." "This is a black mirror of our own world, and in that regard it’s anachronistic, so all of the props can come from any other time period." Reference points included the sewer sections of the video game Resident Evil and the central water channel from Stephen King’s It. As Dan and the team studied tunnel images, they began to see gas mask eyes in them, which became the three holes in the set that echo the masks worn by the child witches.

LEFT VIEW ISO

1:50 @ A3

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MACBETH

AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY

MAKING THE PLAY

LIGHTING DESIGN — RACHEL MARLOW AND BRADLEY GLEDHILL (FILAMENT ELEVEN 11) "We’re interested in the practical lighting of the space, how this underground world would be illuminated, lots of work lights and hanging cage lights on the walls." "The other element is the world above, the natural light coming into the space, and the point in the show where we no longer see that natural light. Those light sources become really special. They feel like a real sense of danger, the war coming in from above." "We can have a really low light within the face that leans into the real horror, the light coming through a hole in the set, the mind really playing tricks on us."

MAKING THE PLAY

Costume COSTUME DESIGN — ELIZABETH WHITING

"We’re heading into a kind of mythical Celtic world that has elements of contemporary army costumes. For each character I’ve collected looks together."

"Most of the costumes are black, white and grey, but with the family I’ve given them a slight flavour of colour in their fabric."

"It’s not like the English army, all in black wearing the same thing. The Scottish army is really mixed, gathered bits and pieces."

On the children, who double as the witches: "They’re pushing more and more to a sort of 1940s look, schoolboy caps and blazers and shorts, nothing particularly fitting."

MAKING THE PLAY

Sound and Music COMPOSER AND SOUND DESIGN — ROBIN KELLY "Sound wise, we’re leaning into that horror film style. There’s the sound of the world, everything echoey, with dripping and clanging metal, an atmosphere that accompanies you throughout. You’re always underground, so everything has that reverb and sense of space."

"The thing I love about the pipes is that droning sound that goes on and on. You can’t change the key, you just have this inevitability throughout, a sense of something that cannot change. Much like when Macbeth starts to think he can change things, there is no changing." "As we get to the second act, there’s an element of death metal that comes in. We’re recording it properly with an Auckland heavy metal band called Demons of Noon."

MAKING THE PLAY

The actors, their craft, and the wairua of Macbeth To articulate the wairua of Macbeth, it might help to think about ihi, wehi & wana. These terms relate to the actoraudience relationship. Ihi is the energy, magnetism or power of a performer; wehi is the viewer’s personal reaction to an actor’s performance, and wana refers to the overall experience or emotional response to the performance as a whole. We asked some members of the Macbeth cast to talk about the techniques or approaches they are using to help them powerfully embody their characters, the effect they hope to have on an audience at crucial moments, and the things that matter to them that their role might reflect or resonate with.

SARA WISEMAN PLAYING LADY MACBETH In the play: "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." (Lady Macbeth, Scene 5.1) Her craft (voice, body, movement, inner process) Most importantly, it’s trying to recognise how different she is to everyone else. She’s an incredibly isolated character, so I’ve been exploring avenues in my own world where I can find parallels, to make it feel truthful and authentic. There’s the universal idea too of a woman in a patriarchal world where she’s isolated and has no legacy, so she’s trying to find what she can grapple onto for purpose and for making her mark. That’s my way in. And because Shakespeare isn’t in my everyday vernacular, it’s really about getting the muscularity of the language and

MAKING THE PLAY

enjoying the process of falling in love with the words to release the emotion. The effect she’s after The scene: Scene 5.1, the sleepwalking scene. The answer: overlapping, splintered, haunted guilts, drowning. Why it matters now Where we have the most misery in our lives is where we’re craving something we don’t have and so aren’t satisfied, or we’re trying to avoid something we do have. That can cause a deep imbalance, whether or not it tips into committing murder. It’s that sense of lack or desire, that craving, and I think that’s where she’s really recognisable in most people. As you watch: In Scene 5.1, watch how Sara lets the guilt surface in her hands and voice while she sleeps.

There are a few. I’m quite a kinaesthetic performer, so I really lean into physicality and movement, and there’s been lots of opportunity for that with Macduff. He’s classically described as a man of action, and he doesn’t have that many words in the play, so I get to map my journey physically. It’s not just choreography, it’s thinking about his personal physicality. Alongside that there’s a strong vocal element. I’ve loved the work we’ve been doing with Cherie Moore on the third circle, the idea that our contemporary speed of thinking and speaking is too fast for the poetic language, so I’m really leaning into clarity and vocal presence and dynamic. The physical work gives a great counterpoint to the verse being so much about breath and language and sound. It lets me come at it from the ankles up. The effect he’s after The scene: Scene 4.3, the moment Macduff learns his family have been killed. The answer: I’d love everyone to be so moved they cry their eyes out.

MAAKA POHATU PLAYING MACDUFF In the play: "He has no children. All my pretty ones? Did you say all? All? All?" (Macduff, Scene 4.3) His craft (voice, body, movement, inner process)

Why it matters now There are strong elements of mental health in it, and the psychology of the play is really strong. Macduff is the counterpart to Macbeth: Macbeth tries to squash his emotions down, his feeling and his thinking, whereas Macduff is a very feeling man. There’s that moment where he says, "I shall do so; but I must feel it as a man." I think that lands 39

well, because we live in this era of the manosphere and toxic masculinity. It’s not the healthiest example of an emotional scene, but at least he sees that saying how he feels is better than squashing it down and turning into what Macbeth turns into. As you watch: In Scene 4.3, notice what Maaka does with his body and his stillness, not just his voice, as Macduff hears the news.

in that moment? Why does she choose that particular outfit, and what does it say about her right now? That’s been a really fun and wonderful challenge, because I’ve not had to work so specifically with costume before. The effect she’s after The scene: the second scene of the play, the first scene with all the adults on stage. The answer: "Excite and invigorate the audience." Why it matters now

KEAGAN CARR FRANSCH PLAYING ROSS In the play: "Alas, poor country, almost afraid to know itself. It cannot be called our mother but our grave." (Ross, Scene 4.3) Her craft (voice, body, movement, inner process) Something I’ve been really trying to work with is my body in relation to costume. The costumes are so different to what I normally wear in real life, so having them on my body, the textures, the flow of it, the bulk and the weight of it, has really been informing my character. I’ve had to use my craft skills to ask: my character wears a lot of layers, what is that about? Why does she do that? When does she take those layers off, and what does that mean for the story, and for her story 40

I’m thinking a lot about family and family connection. One of the threads the director is teasing out and stretching in this play is that connection between parents and children, and how the loss of children, or the loss of family connection, can twist and turn you, how that trauma can bend your perspective of the world and of yourself. What I’m really enjoying about my character is finding her family connection with the Macduffs, tracing the Macduff family journey and how that affects her. I think about that a lot, especially because we’re living in a time when loss of family and connection is a big thing that’s happening. In wartime, in so many countries, there’s separation where people can’t contact their whānau. This play is really making me feel a lot more empathy for that, and makes me want to hold tight to family connection.

MAKING THE PLAY

As you watch: In Scene 4.3, it is Ross who carries the news of the Macduff family’s deaths to Macduff ("I have said"). Watch how Keagan holds that moment.

The effect he’s after The scene: the England scene (4.3), where Malcolm resolves to stand and fight. The answer: courage to stand up. Why it matters now

TRAVIS GRAHAM PLAYING MALCOLM In the play: "Be this the whetstone of your sword. Let grief convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it." (Malcolm, Scene 4.3) His craft (voice, body, movement, inner process) Having spent the last seven years working predominantly in television, I’d forgotten just how crucial your voice is on stage. The first couple of days, full disclosure, I had some serious self-doubt about whether I could actually do this again. Rather than letting it overwhelm me, I took it step by step. I’d done a lot of the book work beforehand, but that counts for nothing if you don’t have the voice to back it up. In the process of finding the volume, depth and breadth of the voice, there was always that connectivity to what you’re actually saying, and I kept trying to find the sweet spot where what I’m saying matches everything else. When you find that spot, it’s much easier to fill the space with intention.

This might sound a bit strange, but it’s fairly well known that the manosphere is doing real harm to men and to masculinity. There are components of this play, particularly in my character, that speak to that. Hypothetically, you could read Macbeth as a tyrannical, manosphere kind of figure. He isn’t entirely that, but you could read it into him. And Malcolm, at junctures in this story, could become Macbeth Jr, essentially, and fall into being that tyrannical man no one likes, trying to take over the world for whatever bitter reason. But at every juncture Malcolm makes the decision to apply logic, to reason, to come up with a plan, and those are things that are often lacking. What I’m trying to say is that in this play, outside of Macbeth, there are a lot of positive male role models, and I think that’s a secondary theme we’re capturing here. As you watch: Notice the choices Malcolm makes when things are at their worst. Where does he choose reason over revenge?

MAKING THE PLAY

MARIANNE INFANTE PLAYING LADY MACDUFF In the play: "For the poor wren, the most diminutive of birds, will fight, her young ones in her nest, against the owl." (Lady Macduff, Scene 4.2) Her craft (voice, body, movement, inner process) I’d say my breath work. When I was at drama school it always baffled me why I was spending a whole year learning how to breathe, or how to walk neutrally. But when Cherie Moore was working with us in our vocal sessions, it became very clear, looking at the text and the lack of verse in Lady Macduff’s dialogue, that finding the heartbeat of her lines, and the breath pattern that sits within that, really helped me ground myself in her body. We often think Shakespeare is all about getting your consonants and your clarity and articulation, and it is, but I actually think all of that sits on top of the heartbeat and the breath underneath it. That’s been a major anchor for my craft, a way into the world and the language, because I find the language really difficult, so having the breath nailed was the key.

The effect she’s after The scene: Scene 4.2, the moment Lady Macduff screams for her children as they’re dragged away to be murdered. The answer: I want it to pull on people’s spines. Why it matters now As a new mum, to be in a role looking after two babes with one on the way, the part falls right on the spine of anyone who is maternal, any mother who knows what it is to carry a child, whether emotionally or physically. There’s the amount of grief this character is about to experience, juxtaposed against the amount of love and joy she shows for most of the show. And for this character to be the moral pivot of the whole play, with that figure being a mother, means a lot to me. As you watch: In Scene 4.2, Lady Macduff compares herself to a wren defending her nest. Watch how Marianne shows both the love and the fear.

Ensemble Auckland Theatre Company is committed to creative pathways for artists and creatives in training to grow through professional work both on stage and off stage. In Macbeth, two teams of actors in training alternate as the Ensemble across the season. ABOUT OUR ENSEMBLE The Ensemble is comprised of 18 actors in training: six students at Unitec and twelve members of ATC’s Youth Company. ATC YOUTH COMPANY Our Youth Company is a free, part-time, yearlong programme for rangatahi aged 18 to 25. Now in its fifth year, it gives young performers the chance to learn inside a working theatre, in an environment that acknowledges that being an artist takes enormous strength and resilience. This year’s cohort is an ambitious group, deeply committed to learning about and creating theatre.

UNITEC SCHOOL OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES We partner with training institutions across Aotearoa to bring ākonga into the room alongside professional practitioners. In Macbeth, we are proud to welcome Unitec Performing and Screen Arts (Acting) students into the ensemble.

Auditions for the 2027 cohort open in November.

Supporting Partners

Capability Partner

Excellence Partner

Core Funder

Youth Company is proudly made possible by the generous support of the Youth Company Supporters Group

MAKING THE PLAY

Rehearsal Room Diary One ATC Teaching Artist, Emily Hurley sat in on the first weeks of rehearsal and kept this diary. Read it to see how choices made in the room become the choices you watch on stage.

30/06/26 — THE JUGGLING EXERCISE Music plays and the actors stand in a circle. Ben starts with juggling balls at his feet and passes them out, each actor passing their ball on to another. They have to remember who they took it from and who they gave it to, because they will repeat the pattern. Then Ben adds a second pattern, actors swapping places around the circle, and brings the balls back so they hold both at once. The game runs until they lose track. It looks like play, but it trains rhythm, spatial awareness and ensemble: moving with intention, passing clearly, staying aware of everyone in the space while keeping the mind sharp. That is

the perfect warm up for Shakespeare, where an actor tracks the rhythm of the verse, their character’s intention, their entrances and their relationships all at once. For your exam: rhythm, focus and ensemble are drama techniques. Watch how the cast carry this precision into the crowded scenes on stage.

02/07/26 — CHECKING IN Before work begins, the cast circle up and check in. Marianne Infante (Lady Macduff) feels like a spring morning melting the frost. Keagan Carr Fransch (Ross) says she is not "the calm before the storm" but the storm itself, and that she may need to step out briefly during the day. Lauie Tofa (Donalbain) counts introducing his son to Queen on the drive to school as his win. Mark Mitchinson (Macbeth) admits he feels out of his depth with the scope of the play, then affirms his trust in the process and his fellow actors. 45

Witnessing this, and the team’s warmth in response, was heartening. The practice matters for actors because their work is so intimate, but really for anyone working closely with others.

03/07/26 — PERSONAL HIGHLIGHT My highlight was Ben’s direction of Sara Wiseman (Lady Macbeth) in the "Out, damned spot" soliloquy (a speech a character delivers alone, thinking aloud). Sara had imagined a vision for each part of the scene, and Ben helped her shape it so it reads for the audience: find Macbeth’s arms, smell him, run her hands down to the daggers that killed Duncan, then see the blood. On "what is done cannot be undone," Ben stands in for the child Fleance and turns away as she reaches for him. You see at once how that dead child turning away tips her into grief. The moment lands hard in the room.

Note: seeing Fleance here is a staging choice, not part of Shakespeare’s text. It ties the sleepwalking scene to the production’s idea that violence keeps returning to haunt, especially through children.

09/07/26 — GROUP BONDING Today the game flies. Robert Pollock (King Duncan) clucks like a chicken as he circles, grabbing attention for passes by calling "Saffiya!" like a garden gnome being strangled. The playfulness is a sign the actors are connecting: building trust and learning the game of the play.

14/07/26 — THE LAST ACT Branches pruned from the trees in the ATC carpark have been spray-painted red. They look like blood vessels, and

MAKING THE PLAY

I imagine this veiny Birnam Wood assembled on stage before Macbeth is slain. The muddy canal down the middle of the set is a wooden frame for now. Sara places her lantern at its end and mimes washing her hands during the "perfumes of Arabia" soliloquy, which will be real water in the theatre. Her shadow will fall large behind her across the water as she performs it like a dance. Seeing design brought in this early shows how much it shapes performance. Mark has found strange, funny notes in his final scenes, all the more unsettling against the gravity the others carry. Macbeth is unhinged, putting on invisible armour and laughing about killing Donalbain, "who was not born of woman," yet he grounds the "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" soliloquy with real depth. For your exam: watch how one actor’s tonal choices, funny then devastating, shape how you read a whole scene.

NOTES FOR THE CAST: MORSELS OF PERFORMANCE WISDOM Ben often gives the cast a single collective focus before a run. One day it was the cold: they would be able to see their breath. Another was the ghost story in the play: "Any opportunity to take us on the ghost train, do it. Every one of you has a speech that could be a ghost story, and if we do that, then we are collectively building the TONE." It is a neat directing tool, building the world of the play a little at a time without overwhelming actors who each carry their own focus into every rehearsal. And from vocal coach Cherie Moore: "Breathe in the room and the world as you enter the stage, breathe in the audience and open your eyes. Be generous with your eyes."

MAKING THE PLAY

Rehearsal Room Diary Two Kieran Craft, student from Pōneke’s International Institute of Modern Letters, kept a diary through the first week of rehearsal.

MONDAY Rehearsals open with a welcome and introduction for the main cast, then the work of diving into the world begins. The frame for this production of Macbeth is a community at war, fighting and hiding in tunnels underground. The set, lighting, costume and sound designers present their work, building the physical world the actors will inhabit: the corroded, festering sewers, the mixed-up time periods of the military costumes and paraphernalia, the death metal soundtrack. Everything is there to make the world threatening, dangerous and inescapable. The actors then explore who their characters are and how they relate, nobody in isolation, everyone shaped

by the world and by each other. ATC staff come in to onboard the cast, because unlike a typical ATC show this production casts child actors as the three witches. Real thought has gone into preparing them for the challenging content and making the rehearsal space safe for young performers. Late in the day the cast build the world through movement exercises, learning how to move through the half-built set alongside a large company, then pick up choreography for the ceilidh, a folk dance that brings energy and joy after such dark material. For your exam: notice how every design choice, set, lighting, costume and sound, is pointed at one effect, a world that feels threatening and inescapable. That is technologies working together.

TUESDAY Tuesday starts with mindfulness and a vocal warm up, building routines to

keep voices healthy across a whole season. Then comes tablework (sitting together to read and unpack the text before any staging), where the cast trace the "golden threads" that connect every character. Each actor offers a phrase for their character’s relationship to the world above, where the war rages, and the world below, where they hide. The choices are not borrowed from other versions of Macbeth, they are built from this script and these characters. Some roles have been combined, altered or given more stage time than in the original, and those changes ripple across every relationship. As the cast read and break down the first scenes, Ben rings a bell each time something shifts the world, making the rhythm and sheer pace of this version tangible. For your exam: the combined and altered characters are deliberate directorial choices. Track how they change the story you see against Shakespeare’s original.

and Donalbain. In a story about war, blood and violence, every fight has to communicate something to the audience, so each is carefully planned in advance. Note: Macbeth fighting Donalbain is a change from Shakespeare’s text, where Macbeth’s final duels are with Young Siward and Macduff. Worth watching what the production gains from the swap.

THURSDAY After a warm up exploring the actual sound of the lines, tablework runs through to the end of the first half. Each actor presents a "starter kit" for their character, objects or images that capture the heart of this version and the inspirations they are drawing on. Then blocking begins (planning exactly where actors move, including entrances and exits). With the main cast, ensemble and child actors all on stage there will be 38 performers, so the leads learn their places fast to keep order.

WEDNESDAY More tablework through several scenes of act one, then group movement. Combat staging begins with Banquo’s murder and the fight between Macbeth 50

FRIDAY The week ends with a full read-through, top to bottom, with Unitec students

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standing in for the witches and more of the production team listening in. In many shows this happens on day one, but holding it to Friday has given the cast hours inside the world first, deepening their sense of who they are and why they act as they do. The read-through carries a palpable confidence and connection. Then it is back to blocking, now with some ensemble present, filling the stage into the cramped, crowded quarters you would expect in underground tunnels at war. ATC’s Macbeth is already coming into focus, and it is only the end of week one.

In The Press In the lead-up to opening, the cast and creative team spoke with media about the world they have built underground. Here is some of what they said. Reviews will follow once the season is running, so keep an eye on outlets like Theatreview and the NZ Herald for critical responses you can fold into your portfolio.

IN CONVERSATION: BENJAMIN KILBY-HENSON Director Benjamin Kilby-Henson sat down with RNZ’s Susie Ferguson on Saturday Morning ahead of opening. His answers open a window onto almost every choice in the production. Listen to the full interview on RNZ. On Macbeth as the original thriller: “What Shakespeare has given us with Macbeth is the OG crime thriller. We see so many of these tropes in modern thrillers or films or TV shows, and they all started here. The darkness, the jump scares. About 15 times through the show, characters are going, ’Who’s there?’ At the time it was written, 52

you’d be in a theatre in the daylight, so all of that text has to support this atmosphere of paranoia and fear. Now we get the privilege of being able to light it and make it dark and gloomy and put a soundtrack to it, but the text does the work for you.” On why this Macbeth, now: “If we’d done this production eight years ago, it wouldn’t be what we’ve got for Auckland audiences now. It’s the maturity of those two, the stage of life they’re at, the unbreakable chemistry they share. Mark turned 60 during this rehearsal process, and there’s something so special that underpins the great speeches Macbeth has.” On why the Macbeths do it: “The first question with Macbeth is, why do they do it? If you’re a king, you’re not on the front line. Macbeth is out there on the battlefield cutting someone from the nave to the chops. He’s an action man. So if Lady Macbeth can secure the crown for him, that’s protection. If they go back into war, he won’t be out there with his life at risk.” On Lady Macbeth’s descent: “Their pathway through the story is really

MAKING THE PLAY

similar through act one, and then as it turns towards the second act they start to go asunder. Macbeth deals with it by leaning even further into the supernatural, and she comes undone by the weight of the guilt. Lady Macbeth recreates the whole play throughout that madness speech; we’ve got little speckles of every scene she’s been in, and then she wanders off and we see her never again.” On staging violence without guns: “I just think there’s a more creative way to look at the impact of violence. There’s something about a gun that is impersonal, too easy. We are daggers in our production because they’re so key to Duncan’s murder, but we’ve also got found objects, so our weapons are lead pipes or a wrench or a wooden log. There’s something far more brutal and considered about that. We see guns on TV all the time and we become so desensitised to them.” On casting children as the witches: “The theme of childhood, of lineage, of the next generation is interwoven throughout the whole of Macbeth. Those kids also play the witches, so the decisions of the older people are impacting the next generation. We

kick off the show with three little people saying, ’When shall we three meet again?’ and you’re going, wow, this is heartbreaking. The witches are ambiguous: they make the suggestion, but it’s the grown-ups who follow through. The play asks loads of questions and answers none of them.”

FROM THE CAST “He’s battle-worn, he’s weary, and it feels like I’m the right age for that. The bigness of the life you’ve had after 60 years means you can go to that place and totally understand it, more in some ways than I did even when we first went to Ben.” Mark Mitchinson (Macbeth). Read Mark’s full interview in the NZ Herald (paywalled). “She’s queen bee when it comes to Shakespeare’s women. Having this glorious opportunity to walk the boards with her, I’m adoring the text and I’m adoring going down the garden path of all things Shakespeare.” Sara Wiseman (Lady Macbeth). Listen to Sara on 53

RNZ’s Bookmarks with Perlina Lau or on Newstalk ZB’s Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. “It’s been described as an anachronistic world. There’s a shade of World War Two or Mad Max to the setting. Everyone lives underground because the world above has been blown to pieces, it’s warring and destroyed, so we all hunker down in the sewers.” Maaka Pohatu (Macduff). Read the full SpicyPulp interview. “Ben is really finding a new definition of ecstasy and madness in the setting. With us losing touch with nature, being deprived of sunlight and the natural elements, it raises questions about what happens when those who hold power are brought down to the same level as everyone else.” Marianne Infante (Lady Macduff). Read the full SpicyPulp interview. Alison Bruce (Lennox) shared her love of Shakespeare and this production in a video interview with arts writer Andrew Whiteside. Watch it here.

⼈頭猪税 Pork and Poll Taxes

Proudly Asian Theatre and Hand Pulled Collective present the return season of

by Talia Pua

1891, New Gold Mountain. Jiu Choy impulsively decides to immigrate to Aotearoa to escape the pressures back home and start a new life with his wife, Shui Ching. What begins as an idealistic dream quickly spirals out of control when Shui Ching sends their only son, Kam Loi, in her place. This triggers a chain of events that pits family member against family member as they fight for what they each believe is the ‘better life’. Jiu Choy’s obsession, Shui Ching’s stubbornness, and Kam Loi’s desperation to please threaten to shatter the family apart. However, greater societal and political powers are at play, which will ultimately determine the fate of this family.

School Bookings Dates

Ākonga Kaiako

$15 Free

Groups

We kindly ask groups keep a ratio of 1 kaiako : 15 ākonga.

Time Length Venue

Thu 17 Sep Fri 18 Sep 11am 90 minutes + post-show Q&A Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre

Content

Racism, violence, racial slurs, and loud noises. Suitable for ages 14+.

Each school booking includes an educational guide exploring the themes of the play, historical context, and statements from the creative team behind the production. The guide is focussed towards students studying for NCEA Drama assessment standards 91943, 91219, and 91518.

For more information or to book, please contact Assistant Producer Natalya Mandich-Dohnt on natalya.mandich@gmail.com

“I have thee not, yet I see thee still....” Exploring Kilby-Henson’s Directorial Concept This section is specifically designed to help you unpack the show and utilise the information in this pack in the classroom with your kaiako/teacher. Each section references information in the pack and is structured in the following way:

•

In the Classroom: Brainstorming, prompt and practical activities to provoke discussion and help you explore the education material provided

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Revise: Questions for you to complete individually in preparation for your AS91518 Exam in November. These questions have been specifically developed from the 2026 Exam Specifications provided via this link: Level 3 Assessment Specifications

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

EXPLORING KILBY-HENSON’S IDENTIFIED THEMES Benjamin Kilby-Henson has always approached his productions with a clear sense of purpose, carefully defining the ideas and themes he wants to explore as he brings each play to life. Using the Director’s Vision and Design Choices on page 24 complete the following activity:

Shakespeare’s texts are timeless and a good canvas to explore topical themes and ideas. Reflect individually in a short essay: What makes the way Kilby-Henson directs and explores Shakespeare unique and/or powerful?

• Fold a large sheet of paper in half to make two columns. Label each column with one of the two main ideas from the director’s vision

THE BLUEPRINT FOR THE THRILLER AND HORROR GENRE

• Identify moments from the performance that connect to these ideas, noting them down with specific details; what was happening onstage, dialogue, design elements

Benjamin Kilby-Henson mentions that Macbeth is the “blueprint for the original thriller.” Explore this idea in small groups.

• You could include sketches with annotations • Share the scenes/moments you have identified in groups with the rest of your class and discuss:

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Identify the key characteristics of a thriller and/or horror. You might want to think about films, novels, or other plays

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Using the synopsis in this pack, discuss how the key characteristics of a thriller or horror appear in the play, identifying key plot points

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Map the key plot points and characteristics along a timeline

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Discuss with the rest of the class how Kilby-Henson’s directorial concept and the design team realised these thriller or horror characteristics in the production. Refer to specific examples of:

• How this made you feel at the time • What you have felt and thought about since • How this might connect to the world you live in historically, geographically, politically and socially Reflect as a class: Discuss why you think

• How tension was built by both actor performance and/or design elements • How atmosphere was created and what it made you feel as a member of the audience •

Discuss how expressionism was referenced in the directorial and design choices made. You might reference the information on Page X and specific scenes from the performance to support your discussion.

Reflect on your exploration and discuss why you think William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth as a thriller/horror.

REVISE - (COMPLETE THESE AS YOU STUDY FOR YOUR EXAM) Director’s concept: •

Working in the same small groups storyboard (three to five panels) a moment from Macbeth where the key characteristics of a thriller or horror are highlighted. Once you have created your storyboard, bring it to life. You could incorporate the following: •

Include freeze frames or tableaux directly from your storyboards

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A thrust stage configuration

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Break the fourth wall and have characters speak directly to audience using asides or soliloquy

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Use features of Elizabethan Theatre that were highlighted in ATC’s production

•

Aim to build tension and atmosphere that highlight the key characteristics of a thriller.

Once you have performed for your peers, discuss as a class how these scenes could be extended and how the choice of staging was impactful. 58

Discuss the purpose of the performance and how the themes or ideas link to what is happening in the world; socially, politically or historically. Link your ideas to specific moments or examples from the performance: • How did the way the performance was realised impact the style of delivery of the narrative/story? • How does the content of the play challenge and serve the audience?

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Discuss how the director brought the story to life using Drama Components - Elements, Conventions, Techniques and Technologies

•

What do you think Benjamin Kilby-Henson is asking you to think about in the way he has directed Macbeth: • How did the acting and staging choices affect you as an audience member?

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

“Actions and supernatural activities destroy worlds” Exploring Character As you complete the following activities, think about the wairua of the performance and the answers that the actors have given to the questions in the The actors, their craft, and the wairua of Macbeth section on page 38, which have been specifically crafted with ihi, wehi and wana in mind.

MAPPING MACBETH’S UNRAVELLING Macbeth’s ambition causes his unravelling throughout the play and can be exemplified through his loss of connection with those that surround him, until he stands alone against Malcolm’s army.

In order to unpack this, as a class, create a timeline pinpointing and mapping the moments that Macbeth loses connection with characters in the play, with the audience and then finally with himself. Describe explicitly how it happens on stage, focusing on the actors’ use of drama techniques: •

Lady Macbeth

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Superiors, Comrades and Friends Banquo, Macduff, King Duncan, etc

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The Audience

•

Himself

Reflect: •

Why is the loss of connection important to understand when unpacking Macbeth’s character arc?

•

Why is it important that Macbeth’s connection with the audience was severed? 59

•

Discuss how Kilby-Henson’s directorial choices and the way Mark Mitchinson created the character highlighted this loss of connection.

THE CYCLICAL NATURE OF VIOLENCE Macbeth opens and closes in the remnants of violence; on the battlefield. Violence reaches its tentacles throughout the play, impacting individual characters and also family groups. In small groups, use the following discussion question to explore how violence impacts the characters within the play and how the actors communicated this to the audience through their use of drama techniques. How do the actors’ character choices communicate the lasting impact of violence across generations? You could consider: • Lady Macbeth’s loss of a child

• The fate of the Macduff family • Banquo’s death • Macbeth’s fate at the end of the play Record your ideas as comprehensive brainstorms, ensuring that you connect your discussion to specific scenes in the performance and actors use of voice, body, movement and space. For homework: Choose a specific character or idea from your brainstorm and write a short essay in response to the discussion question above.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE SUPERNATURAL Mark Mitchinson comments that “actions and supernatural activities destroy worlds.” Explore this idea through the casting and characterisation of the witches and how they impact the narrative. KilbyHenson has chosen to cast children as the witches, depicting them as World War Two evacuees. Use the following activity to explore how they contribute to the destruction of worlds:

• King Duncan’s murder

• Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness

Consider the following:

• The way Lady Macduff is presented in the play versus Lady Macbeth - how gender roles play into the violence of the play

• Why do you think Kilby-Henson chose to cast children as the Witches? • How were the witches represented on stage; discuss characterisation, costume, historical influences

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• Discuss their use of drama techniques and how they performed as a trio • How did they influence and/or impact the other characters in the play • How did they influence and/or impact the narrative Use the information you have collated as you brainstormed and create a Cause and Effect Flowchart, focusing on how each of Macbeth’s encounters with the witches influences or leads to later events in the play. You could draw your flowchart yourself or use a programme with templates, like Canva. Practical extension: you could bring your flow chart to life by performing small excerpts from scenes that support the causes and effects you have identified. Share with your peers and verbally reflect on how this helped you to understand the influence of the supernatural. Reflect: for homework reflect on KilbyHenson’s decision to cast children as the coven of witches and what this communicated to the audience in a short written essay.

REVISE - (COMPLETE THESE AS YOU STUDY FOR YOUR EXAM) Drama Techniques: Body, Voice, Movement and Space: You may want to answer all the questions for the same actor or focus on different actors for each question • Describe how an actor used drama techniques in a specific moment in the performance • Explain an actor’s use of drama techniques and how they transformed the space within the performance • Choose specific moments where you felt an actor used their body, voice, movement, and space in combination, to create impact, focus, or to support an important idea/theme • Describe how a character in the performance uses their techniques to establish status on stage • Discuss how power is exemplified on stage and how two characters used their techniques to play with this idea • Thinking about a specific character and the way they created the characters arc: • How did they use techniques to create a sense of time and place? • How did they use techniques to communicate the wider discussions of the play; power, ambition, the influence of the supernatural, loss of connections, status, etc?

• What social or political ideas did they represent within the play? How did the actor use techniques to communicate this? • How did an actor use drama techniques to communicate subtext in their performance? Use a specific moment and example to discuss this use of subtext. Character: • Discuss the purpose of these characters within the narrative of Macbeth: • What impact do they have on the narrative? • Discuss the importance of the audience and actors’ relationship • How do the actor/s use of techniques communicate their purpose in the performance? • How are power dynamics created and what does this status play communicate to the audience? • What do specific characters represent when you are thinking about the wider context of the play and how Kilby-Henson has chosen to direct it? Think about characters who represent specific social, cultural, historical or geographical ideas highlighted by the creative choices.

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’Excavating the duplicity of the murderous mind’ through design Kilby-Henson and Dan Williams are a duo whose collaboration and approach to stage production speaks to a deep and thoughtful dissection of the text and a harmony in how this is realised on the stage. From the outset of the production Kilby-Henson outlined a clear vision for the themes, symbols and ideas that he wanted to represent through this rendition of the Scottish Play and the designers brought this to life in vivid detail

Macbeth and the characters of the play the space to unravel. Use this activity to unpack these choices:

MACBETH THROUGH A BLACK MIRROR - DESIGN AND THEME

Annotate: For each sketch, annotate in as much specific detail as possible using correct drama terminology:

“The world is at war so our characters have fled underground.” Like Shakespeare’s text which ensnares and traps the characters, design is used with specificity in order to give

Sketch: Identify key moments in the production where the set was used in a specific way; the whole stage in use, individual sections in use, etc •

Sketch the different ways the stage was used

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Give each sketch a title connected to the specific moment you are sketching; this could be a quote from the text or a thematic title

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The materials and elements of the set

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How lighting interacted with the set or was used

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How sound was used

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How special effects were used. 63

Discuss the following and add written paragraphs to your sketches: How these ideas drawn from Kilby-Henson’s Director’s concept were evident through the design choices made, ensure you quote from the Design notes on Page 24 – 37: •

How tension, atmosphere and focus is built

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How time and place is established

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How the design excavates the duplicity of the murderous mind • Images that are there and not there • Truths that might be fate or merely suggestion

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The concept of Scotland through the Black Mirror

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Timeless broken environments that reflect our own world

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Underground, inside dark tunnels, dripping/echoing both physically and inside the mind

REFLECTING ON SOUND: In the pre-show pack a sound activity was outlined for you to work through before seeing Macbeth. Reference your notes or go back to the pre-show pack to revisit the activity. Now that you have seen the performance, respond to the following questions as a whole class. Brainstorm your ideas on the 64

whiteboard and save a picture of these notes in a place everyone can reference for revision or during portfolio creation: •

What impressions do you get about the world of the play?

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What does this tell you about the witches?

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What might you expect to see in the show based on this piece of sound design?

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Note any commonalities between the things you noticed in your own performances, and the performance you are imagining for Macbeth.

THE COLOURS OF THE UNDERGROUND WORLD: A distinct colour palette has been chosen for this contemporary performance of Macbeth. The set, costumes and lighting reinforce the play’s themes, ideas and symbols. They also give us a sense of time, place and degradation. Use the following activity to explore your observations. Activity: Before starting this activity look at different examples of circular colour wheels. Using your reference images, shade in the colours you observed onstage, then use arrows to connect each colour to the characters who wore it. Annotate your diagram with observations:

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What do these characters have in common? Are there shared themes, motifs or symbols?

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Consider how the costume colours relate to the set and lighting

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Share your diagram with a peer, adding ideas as you discuss.

By the end, your colour wheel should be surrounded by annotations that can support your exam responses or portfolio. Short essay question: How do the costumes and set work together to establish the world of Macbeth? What do you think Kilby-Henson and the design team intended the audience to understand through these design choices?

REVISE - (COMPLETE THESE AS YOU STUDY FOR YOUR EXAM) • Discuss how technology or design was used during a climactic moment in the performance? What do you think was at stake within the scene? • What was the impact of the way the design, directorial, and acting choices worked together? Choose a moment that surprised, shocked, or excited you to talk about

• Discuss why the use of sound and lighting design was integral to this performance? Focus on the mood created by sound choices, use of colour and the shapes created by the angles or composition of lighting • How were design and directorial elements (props, setting, AV, costuming, audience positioning and interaction) and the Drama Elements used to build the performance? How did this make you feel as a member of the audience? • Discuss the inspiration for a specific element of the design and link it to wider context; social, political, historical or geographical? How did this deepen your understanding of the themes and ideas the play was communicating? • This would be a good question to explore how power, status and relationships are represented in the performance. Technology: link your ideas to specific moments or examples in the performance. Think about lighting, set, sound, props, costumes, make-up and how this helped bring you into the world of the play. • How was technology used to create the atmosphere in the performance? • How was technology used to highlight important ideas, themes and symbols in the performance?

• How was contrast and/or focus created or built through technology and why was this important? • How did the use of technology help you gain a deeper understanding of the themes of Macbeth? • How were technologies used in combination to transform the space in a specific moment? (Level Two students must revise this question) • How did technology highlight the different characters’ motivations expressed within the performance? • Discuss why this was impactful, exciting or challenged your expectations • How were costumes used to communicate the characters in the play’s purpose in the performance?

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Macbeth and the Jacobean Era For the activities in this section reference Macbeth in Context on page 16

SHAKESPEARE IN THE REIGN OF KING JAMES I King James VI (of Scotland) and I (England and Ireland) came to the throne in 1603 and audiences moved from Elizabethan to the Jacobean era of theatre. During this time there is a shift towards darker themes responding to a turbulent political climate and a refinement of the art of theatre. Shakespeare’s contemporaries changed over this period as well with Ben Jonson and Thomas Dekker coming to the fore. Activity: Through research create a timeline of Shakespeare’s texts, pinpointing where King James takes the throne and how the dynamic of the plays changed or reflected political and personal interests of the monarch and time. Add annotations to your timeline based around the differences between the following in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Eras:

• The class of the characters in the plays • Political or philosophical ideas explored • Change of acting spaces and how this impacted the way that the players acted • Globe Theatre | About us | Discover • Sam Wanamaker Playhouse | About us | Discover | Shakespeare’s Globe • Monarch’s interests • How Comedies, Tragedies and Histories changed, e.g. Comedies becoming more complex in nature Physical activity: Choose a scene that you loved from Macbeth and rehearse the scene with the two different performance venues in mind: • Perform the scene as if you are on The Globe stage, catering to the thrust stage, the groundlings, the galleries, the heavens, earth and hell components of the stage. A bigger and bawdier audience • Perform the scene as if you are in the Sam Wanamaker Theatre (modelled on the original Blackfriars), more 67

intimate, enclosed so you can tap into realism, different audience configuration Perform the scene twice to play with different meaning and acting style for your peers. Discuss what it might have been like to be an actor during either the Elizabethan or Jacobean era.

THE GUNPOWDER PLOT AND JACOBEAN REGICIDE Split into three groups, with each of the groups focusing on each of the following topics. Research your topic and collate important information in a way that suits the group; a brief PPT, a short devised performance, a comprehensive mind map, etc: • The Divine Right of Kings • The Gunpowder Plot • Fear of Regicide in King James reign Once you have shared the research with your class, conduct a class brainstorm connecting this research to the influences that can be found in Macbeth the text and in ATC’s production. Ensure you include the following in your brainstorm notes: • Specific scenes or dialogue, both from the play text and from the performance • Directorial, design and acting choices

• Connections you can make; social, geographical, historical and political Save both your research presentations and your class brainstorms notes to reference for revision or portfolio construction. Practical extension activity: From the scenes you have identified through your discussion either; • Bring a scene to life making acting and staging choices that highlight the ideas from your discussion • Devise a new version of the scene that connects to or highlights ideas from your discussion.

REVISE - (COMPLETE THESE AS YOU STUDY FOR YOUR EXAM) Drama Conventions - strategies established to make meaning and connect to wider context: (NB - make sure you are familiar with what the established Drama Conventions are by discussing this with your teacher) • Identify a moment in the performance where Drama Conventions were used to transform the space: • Explain how the convention or combination of conventions were used in the performance

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• Discuss the impact of the use of the convention or combination of conventions in this moment • Discuss how meaning was created for you, as an audience member, in this moment • Discuss how the use of a convention or combination of conventions in a specific moment helped you think about the big ideas and themes of the play: • What was the wider context (socially, historically, politically or geographically) that this moment linked to? Drama Elements and how they draw our attention to themes, motifs and symbols: • What were the main themes, questions and ideas evident in the performance? Link these themes, questions and ideas to specific moments or examples from the performance

you to think about something in a new light? What impact does this have on the audience and you as a member of the audience? • Reference the wider reading and cultural and historical context in this pack, as well as research material you have brainstormed and think about the impact these themes, symbols or ideas have on the lives and arcs of the characters in the play.

REFERENCES Shakespeare’s contemporaries Timeline of Shakespeare’s plays Shakespeare’s England - Education Resource

• Identify recurring symbols or motifs throughout the performance. Explain why they were important in helping you understand ideas being communicated in Macbeth • How do these themes, symbols or ideas link to the wider world of the play and what impact does this have on the audience? • Were there moments where the content was confronting or forced

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Exploring relationship dynamics through features of the text This section of the pack draws from Fiona Banks’s book Creative Shakespeare: The Globe Education Guide to Practical Shakespeare and will help you to explore the theatre form features that underpin Shakespearean text. You will want access to the whole script of Macbeth.

• “The maths has to work for two lines to be shared.” For example, one character speaks three iambs and another speaks two directly after

SHARED LINES:

With this in mind pull out all the scenes between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth from the play and look at where they share lines.

This is when two characters share the 10 syllables of Iambic Pentameter. Shakespeare is indicating to the actors that there is tension within the scene, that there needs to be pace in the lines and a sense of cutting one another off. In the resource book Creative Shakespeare Fiona Banks sets out the following reminders when working with text: • “The iambic pentameter is Shakespeare’s default setting for verse” 72

• “Shakespeare writes time for pauses and stage business into lines. In this way he not only tells the actors how to play a moment but creates his desired atmosphere from within the verse structure.”

• Dissect the lines; why are they sharing? What is happening in the scene? How is tension and atmosphere built? What themes, ideas or symbols are highlighted? What do you notice? • Stand the scene on its feet and play with sharing the lines together • Look at all the scenes and discuss; are there any commonalities when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are sharing lines? Think about status, power and their relationship dynamics.

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“TRAPPED IN PERPETUAL NIGHT”: Kilby-Henson comments that “Macbeth is deeply poetic in his understanding of human suffering - turning between monosyllabic (words consisting of one syllable) and overly strenuous multisyllabic (words consisting of multiple syllables)” • Compare and contrast Lady Macbeth’s monologue in Act 1, Scene 5 with the Out, damned spot scene. Discuss how the change in language reflects her power, her relationship with Macbeth and eventually being trapped in her deteriorating mind. • Get the scenes on their feet and play with emphasis on the words to make meaning • You could reference this resource to support you Shakespeare and Meaning from Mono-Syllabic Words. – All Ears • Find other scenes in the text or from the performance with heavy use of mono and multi syllabic lines and discuss how they keep the characters “trapped in perpetual night” and how this was brought to life by Kilby-Henson, the actors and the design team.

WORDS AS WEAPONS: As mentioned earlier in the pack, violence is woven throughout the play. Lady Macbeth flings barbs at Macbeth as she encourages him to commit regicide. Bill Buckhurst, who is a regular director for The Globe Theatre, outlines an excellent activity that physicalises how Shakespeare’s characters use words as weapons, the following is an adaptation of that activity. Using Act 1, Scene 7 give the following activity a go: • Pair up and allocate characters • Go through the scene and identify when words are being used as weapons • Stand 2 metres apart and keeping in the theme of Macbeth, imagine a dagger • Speak the lines to one another and hurl your imaginary daggers as you speak the words you have identified. Make sure you react physically to the daggers hitting - have fun with the physicality, making it overly dramatic or accentuated • Review your word choices and replay the scene if you have made changes • Finally replay the scene with no imaginary daggers, instead make choices using your voice, body, movement and use of space to emphasise the way words are weaponised in the scene

• Perform your finished scene for another pair and reflect on how this exercise helped you physicalise the text and understand the way Shakespeare used text. Write a short essay: How did KilbyHenson highlight the weaponry of the text through his directorial choices? Discuss the choices the actors made in their performance of Act 1, Scene 7.

person who is standing Stand - Stand tall, feet planted when your character is at their most powerful, you could even play with standing on the chair In pairs, you must be in one of the above three positions throughout the scene, but you cannot ever be in the same position. You must swap, as your status changes.

STATUS AND POWER:

• Discuss how this made you feel throughout the scene? How did it help you physicalise the character’s power or status? How did it help you understand the scene better?

Play a game of Stand, Sit, Lie with the following scenes in order to discuss and understand status and power play in Macbeth:

Extension: Annotate the script you have been using with your observations of the following:

• Act 1, Scene 7: Lady Macbeth and Macbeth argue over becoming king. • Act 3, Scene 1: Macbeth fears Banquo as a rival and acts to secure his throne. • Act 4, Scene 3: Malcolm and Macduff discuss who is fit to rule Scotland.

• How did Kilby-Henson highlight status and power through his directorial choices? • Discuss the choices the actors made in their performance of the scene you have been exploring.

• Act 5, Scene 8: Macbeth and Macduff fight for Scotland’s future. Lie - You could lie on the floor OR sit on the floor, this is when the character you are playing is at its lowest level of status or lacking power Sit - Sit on a chair, this is when the character is neutral but below the 74

REFERENCES: “Creative Shakespeare: The Globe Education Guide to Practical Shakespeare. Fiona Banks, 2014.”

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Macbeth and Level One NCEA “Drama transforms the tangible into the intangible.” This section of the education pack is designed to support Level One drama students navigate the Level One external Achievement Standard 91943 - Respond to a drama performance. Unlike the Level Two and Three external standards, which are an exam, you will be constructing a portfolio over a period of time in class. It will be based around three key aspects: • key message of the performance, the use of drama components and your own personal response about how you connected to the performance, capturing the wairua (spirit) of what you watched. This portfolio will be presented as a slideshow or PowerPoint and can be a mixture of written and audio visual material - the main question you should ask yourself as a student is; how do I communicate my ideas, thoughts, and feelings about what I saw, the best? With that in mind, you are

encouraged to collect your thoughts, discussions and do your research in a range of formats. Such as; voice notes, sketches and annotations, brainstorms, moodboards, recorded physical responses and writing. Kaiako and ākonga please ensure you read this year’s assessment specifications carefully as you prepare to submit this assessment. You can access the specifications via this link: NZQA Assessment Specifications - Level One Below are three activities to support you to expand your ideas during the teaching and learning phase of unpacking the performance. Key Message: In pairs, small groups or as a whole class, discuss and brainstorm the following prompts: • What do you think Benjamin KilbyHenson was trying to say? Why this story? Why these characters? Why this period of time?

• What do you think Kilby-Henson was trying to communicate through the directorial choices he made? How does this connect with the original Shakespearean version? • What do the characters in the performance represent and what do they communicate to the audience? • What do you think the designers are trying to communicate through their choices? How does this bring KilbyHenson’s ideas to life? Once you have brainstormed around these questions, you could journal, voice note or record thoughts around the following questions: • How do you identify the key message of a performance?

USE OF DRAMA COMPONENTS: Drama components are techniques, elements, conventions and technologies. Make sure you have explored this language and terminology with your kaiako/teacher. Now that you have fleshed out what the key messages might be, you need to connect it with the choices that the director, actor and designers have made and how they have used the drama components in combination. Brainstorm in small groups, or in pairs: •

How an actor used drama techniques in a moment that communicated the key message

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How elements created a sense of mood, atmosphere or tension

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How conventions were used throughout the performance

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How technology enhanced the story being told

• Can there be multiple key messages? • Think about your interpretation of the performance - what was the key message to you? • What physical evidence (e.g. a specific scene) from the performance connects to the key message? This could be a scene, a moment between characters, dialogue, a moment where the use of technology highlighted an idea. • Describe these examples and sketch them in specific detail.

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WAIRUA OF PERFORMANCE AND PERSONAL RESPONSE: In the unpacking on the NCEA website for this standard, this aspect of the assessment is unpacked in detail. Your teacher will support you in understanding this and guide you to explore, research and develop your ideas. Auckland Theatre Company have included interviews from Benjamin Kilby-Henson and the creative team. You will want to reference this in your portfolio construction. “The wairua of the performance is experienced as the intangible energetic and emotive qualities that carry the spirit and intention of the play. How the wairua is expressed by the performers provokes a response from the audience and allows them to reflect on the ideas and themes of the play based on their own life experiences and perspectives.” - 1.4 - Unpacking

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What thoughts, ideas and feelings did the performers provoke in you?

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What have you reflected upon since watching the performance?

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What have you been thinking about (head) and feeling (heart) since?

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What did your gut/sense of intuition communicate to you as you watched the performance?

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What life experiences or perspectives do you bring? What connections did you make? Were there specific cultural connections you made to the production?

REFERENCES Drama | NCEA Level One External Specifications

Macbeth 2026 | Auckland Theatre Company Education Pack