Inside the mind of Macbeth

When the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus’ technical team first saw the sketches for the stage design in mid-June 2021, they were staggered, to put it mildly. The concept went far beyond everybody’s expectations. According to Carsten Wank, technical director at the Schauspielhaus since 2020, their initial reaction was: This is like grand opera – in a repertory theatre. How is that going to work? But at the same time, the design was so compelling they couldn’t wait to find a solution – one that the theatre could pull off.

 
Swiss stage designer Etienne Pluss (see BTR’s 2020 special) had come up with a dune landscape combined with a dangerously skewed castle ruin. The leaning tower of Pisa looks as straight as a die in comparison. A turn of the revolving stage revealed a wide, open landscape. 

Turning the platform 180°, the view varies between the castle and the dunes. 90° turns allow it to alternate between an interior and an exterior space. In this way, all the spaces required by the play are provided: Macbeth’s inner world, which plunges ever more into madness over the course of the play; the open space of the 1    st  act, where the witches make their prophecies; and the woods of Birnam which shift towards the castle in the last act. These are connected to each other by a gigantic door. 
An initial review of the concept’s feasibility found that realising the undulating dune landscape would go beyond the theatre’s resources. So, Pluss revised it, translating the hills and valleys into a landscape of triangles that hang together irregularly, this way and that.

This gave the dunes an additional level of abstraction, which was not only aesthetically interesting but an all-round benefit. Using the Polycam app on a smartphone, the technical team ran a digital check of the scenery. After a relatively short time assessing the 3D model, they concluded that its finished weight and size would not work in the given conditions. The design was put through another stage of reduction, enlarging the triangles while keeping the visual statement, and making it a realistic proposition to build. 
As well as the costs, other key aspects that needed to be considered in the planning phase included: the final dimensions and volume of the scene; a feasible way of dividing the set to allow for setting things up and taking them apart; and the amount of manoeuvring space and repertory time it would require.

The first run-through on the 3D program calculated that 236 panels would need to be cut to make the dunes. A second trial reduced the amount to 139 – still a lot of wood. Due to the limited choice of panel sizes available, some pieces needed to be divided, and in the end 182 panels and 154 frames for the supporting construction were cut. The steel structure was built in the theatre’s own workshops (...)

Preparations for building sets – from researching and ordering the materials to drafting detailed sketches – usually take roughly a month. Building is ideally completed in about three months, with all the workshops and departments working effectively and to capacity. 

Because the stage design for Macbeth was presented quite late, and the set rehearsal didn’t take place until the start of the season, this period was effectively cut to two months. Straight after the summer break, the theatre started looking for contractors and getting the construction phase underway. The calculated time for the 3D construction and the workshop times for the metalwork, scenic elements and painting needed to be closely coordinated. The first technical installation was scheduled for less than two months after the set rehearsal; the basic elements of the stage set needed to be ready by then. Staff in the workshops and all the stage crew worked on the stage set right up to the day of the premiere, on 19 November 2021, to ensure the seemingly impossible came true in the end. 

Powerful images on stage 
The stage set reflects the changes that Macbeth goes through. It starts as a sinister landscape, becoming a formidable castle that seems both eerie and refined. The broad band of light marking the perimeter of the castle grounds suggests generosity and elegance. When this is dimmed and disappears from view, the space expands and, by a slight change in focus and switch to white light, grows morbid and menacing. The shadows of the witches cast on the walls make the castle world  appear ghostly; once gone, the characters on stage are left cold and alone.

The image of Macbeth in a bathtub, with the dagger to commit regicide at the ready, is reminiscent of Peter Weiss’ Marat, sitting for hours in the tub, brooding, procrastinating, and eloquently ​philosophizing about power in the land. It encapsulates the doubter, whom the cool, calm Lady  Macbeth deliberately spurs on.

Light designer Konstantin Sonneson works with shades of white and clear light directions, becoming harsher and softer again. The light makes the cracks in the castle walls, at first barely perceptible, ever more obvious over the course of the piece – a spatial metaphor. In this way, the light, too, subtly follows and underlines the developments in the plot.
The artificial dune landscape, which is almost exclusively presented against the light, proves to be amazingly diverse. Sometimes harsh and craggy, in the end it offers a smooth plain for the drama to reach its climax. The ‘cliffs’ almost blend into the background as the ‘weird sisters’ make a surprising last appearance, emerging out of the dark as if from another world. (...)