You have not seen anything like Dzieci's Makbet. A Gypsy tribe greets you with song and dance, drinks and divination then embarks on the wild, whirlwind of a ritual, which is their show. An immersion beneath the skin of Shakespeare, it is also an explosion of the art of storytelling. Instead of a program with the usual actor bios, you're handed 6 Rules of Engagement which include, among several points, that “Actors must know the entire text” and “Three actors alone must play all the roles."
Before the play begins, the cast tells fortunes and encourages the audience to eat and drink to get in the mood. Glasses and utensils are nowhere to be seen; straight from the bottle and bits off the hunk is the way. The "stage" is somewhat smaller to the average living room carpet (in fact, it is a living room carpet) where sits a large kettle, put to good use, among other things, as the witch's cauldron. A half dozen candles illuminate the space, with hand-held miner’s lamps used to great effect as the only other source of light.
Dzieci's Gypsy rendition of Macbeth comes alive through words and gestures, dance-like movement and choral singing, weaving rhythms and chants together with haunting melodies to achieve otherworldly harmonies. This ageless tale of greed, corruption, omens and foul deeds, is told through the unflinching performance of a handful of actors who take turns spontaneously trading off parts at the drop of a hat (literally), creating a palpable level of immediacy and danger. Propelled by the energy and acumen of the cast, the story moves feverishly along, fervently following the “6 Rules of Engagement.”