Shakespeare’s shortest and bloodiest tragedy has found a place on BYU-Idaho’s campus and will extend its performance one week.

The BYU-I Theatre Department decided to extend Macbeth after all the tickets for the original two-week showing were sold out in three days. The tickets for the added week of showings went on sale Monday morning and were sold out within five hours. 

With themes of duality, choice and consequence, Macbeth has ties with the modern world we live in, said Roger Merrill, the director of Macbeth. 

Macbeth “gets too ambitious and greedy and that’s not unlike our everyday lives,” Merrill said.

Shakespeare, through examples and language, portrays the concept that reality is relative. 

“The Macbeths choose to only view reality such as it suits their ends,” Merrill said. “When faced with the choice between good and evil, they continually and selfishly default to evil, sending them spiraling down a hellish path from which there is no return.” 

The Macbeths show the audience what it is like to make choices based off of greed and glory and the consequences of those choices.  

“Macbeth is the textbook example of a man who sinned and had to pay the consequences,” said Jordan Tait, a senior studying dance who played Banquo, Macbeth’s best friend. 

Tait said this play is exciting to perform on campus. He said this play, despite the evil aspects, portrays the truth of sin and those consequences. 

“There are a lot of people who say we should only portray good,” Tait said. “We don’t live in a world that is only good.” 

Shakespeare wrote a play that is dipped in evil but ultimately teaches good moral values and ideas. 

“I use to think it was dark, but now I understand the values taught in it,” said Kimball Madsen, the Macbeth
stage manager.

Madsen said it was interesting to see Macbeth, who fought for glory, versus Macduff, who fought for his country. 

“It’s kind of like the title of liberty,” Madsen said.  

Meredith Bellows, who plays Lady Macbeth, also found ties to the scriptures during this production. She said reading and rehearsing was like reading the scriptures. 

“You get something different every time you do it,” Bellows said. 

The actors and actresses began preparing in early December when they were cast. Over the two-week winter break the cast was expected to memorize all of their lines. Merrill said everyone, even David Aintablian, who played Macbeth, accomplished that goal. 

Tait said that at least three to four hours every day were put into rehearsals. The longest rehearsal they had lasted nearly seven hours. 

A lot of preparation and a few alterations to the script went into the production of the play. Macbeth, which is considered a cursed play in most theatrical circles, underwent very minor revisions before showing on campus. 

Madsen said Merrill took out the character Hecate, the queen of the witches, because the character wasn’t necessary to the story and to avoid a lot of the dark things in that scene. 

Madsen also said that being on campus and starting each rehearsal with a prayer helped keep the Spirit in the production.

“That helps bring the power of the Lord into the play,” Madsen said. 

LizAnne Whittaker, who played Witch No. 2, was also grateful to perform the play on this campus. 

“I wouldn’t feel as safe exploring some of these things away from this spiritual atmosphere,” Whittaker said in a talk-back with the cast after the first performance Wednesday night. 

Connecting with the characters was hard for some of the cast as many had to act evil. 

“I consider myself to be a fairly nice person,” Bellows said. “It was hard to find things to relate to being Lady Macbeth.”

Aintablian, however, enjoyed the duality that came with being in the play and connecting with the character. 

“My favorite part is that I get to be and do all the evil things you don’t get to do in real life,” Aintablian said.