BWW Blog: Seeing Spooky Shakespeare From the Comfort of a Car

Halloween was not quite the same this year. With the pandemic raging on, it was hard to find safe ways to celebrate the spooky season, so when my roommate asked if I wanted to see a drive-in production of Macbeth, I was stoked. It was put on by Kentucky Shakespeare and was officially called "Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: Macbeth." It was a bit of a drive, but we belted to my Halloween playlist until we finally pulled into the parking lot.

We pulled into the spot we were ushered to, tuned the radio to the correct station, adjusted the volume to our liking, and looked to the stage that was 20 feet in front of us, covered in haze. As a senior in college, I've seen a lot of productions, many of which used haze for no apparent reason. But a production of one of Shakespeare's most wicked plays, on Halloween night, under a full moon was the perfect place to use it. The costumes were also one of the highlights of the show. It had a bit of a steampunk vibe, which I am always a fan of. The show was set in some sort of apocalyptic time, so wearing masks made sense for the story. The witches had on gas masks, which just added to their creepiness. Not to mention that they'd walk by your cars and sometimes even look in the window. We were not prepared for that jump scare, but it definitely added to the experience.

One thing my roommates and I did realize a couple of scenes in, is that we probably should have refreshed our memories on the plot of Macbeth, as sometimes we found ourselves a bit lost. Our confusion was to no fault of the actors, as they all did a phenomenal job. Shakespeare is very wordy, and it moves quickly, especially since the production we saw was condensed to an hour. I'll be the first to admit that I am no expert on Shakespeare and that was evident on this night. Luckily one of the beautiful things about watching theatre this way is that I was easily able to look up something I did not understand. By no means was I on my phone the whole time, I was there to watch the show, but it was nice to be able to quickly clarify an unclear plot point or character. It was also fun to be able to bring food and snack on it while watching. It felt very much like a drive-in movie in that way.

Overall seeing Macbeth in the parking lot was such a fun experience. I would absolutely recommend if you see any theatres advertising a drive-in production, go see it! Although a bit different, live theatre is live theatre, let's embrace what we can get. I love that theatre is still able to happen safely, despite all that is going on in the world. It shows just how passionate, adaptive, and dedicated theatre artists are.