October 31 - November 11, 2006
Jonesborough Repertory Theatre welcomed the humorous fantasy,
Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters, a play by Stephen Briggs.
“Take
Shakespeare’s Macbeth and turn it up until the knob comes off,” says Director
Steve Butler, who is making his JRT directorial debut. This “patchwork parody”
contains magic, satire, ghosts and of course witches. It has been said that
parodying Shakespeare is a cottage industry among novelists.
Wyrd Sisters
is a fun example.
Kerryn Goldsworthy of Elizabeth, England reviews, “The main characters of this
cheerful knockabout production are a trio of witches based on the "weird
sisters" from
Macbeth.
For its characters and events, the story draws mainly on
Macbeth. It's
a kind of comic, almost pantomime version of Shakespeare's play, but also a
patchwork parody of various fairytales, myths, and scraps of medieval lore.
The Wyrd Sisters (the witches) find themselves in charge of an abandoned baby
who turns out to be the son of the late King. The King has been murdered by the
paranoid and dotty Duke Felmet, who now rules the land, and his Duchess (who
rules him). After making 20 years pass by magic, the witches then attempt to
restore the young heir to his rightful throne, with unpredictable results.”
Another British reviewer has said that
Wyrd Sisters
presses a pertinent question upon today's world, “what is, or should be the
role of monarchy in modern society? Pratchett uses the Hamlet example to examine
this question in a new and penetrating manner. Kings can rise and fall through
many means.”
This staged adaptation is a collaboration of Pratchett and Briggs taken from
Pratchett’s comic fantasy novel,
Wyrd Sisters. To those familiar with
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series, the play is a chance to meet some old
friends. Those unfamiliar will find out what the craziness is all about.
Pratchett brings a sense of the absurd to the recognizable, a sense of comedy to
the tragic. Yet, in the end good wins out, in very pragmatic ways.
An eclectic cast makes up the compelling characters: Jean and Steve Bashor,
Brandon Campbell, Josh Grossman, Chalmer and Meredith Harper, Jennifer Holland,
J. T. Hornsey, Victoria Judy, Conner Klee, Logan Lockner, Nancy Hope Major,
Courtney Morrow, Rachel Ponder, Derek Smithpeter, Gareth, Griffin, and Shelley
VanCamp.
“They are a great group to work with and are having a good time with each
other,” says Butler. “My hope for the show is that the audience have as much fun
watching the show as we are having performing it.”
