Every year hordes of motorcyclists descend upon Sturgis, South Dakota to “get together, get naked, party, [and] get drunk,” according to this guy who was there. Those elements are time-honored tradition. So is Shakespeare, of course. But not usually in the same context.
Behold: “Motorcycle Macbeth,” presented by the Bird Cage Theatrics Company. Bird Cage is based out of Wyoming, which explains why they’re so willing to get creative looking for an audience (aren’t there like, six people in that state?)
Anyway, their mobile Macbeth production is biker themed and looks more like a WWE event than what be described a typical Shakespearean production, by which I mean there are guys dumping beer cans on stage.
“The show’s producers admit to having a rough go of it the first couple of days when bikers who just wanted a night out drinking were assaulted by Shakespearian prose,” MEL Films writes in their description of the clip above. But apparently the Bird Cage company got to put on their show without anyone getting stabbed. I mean anyone actually getting stabbed. Macbeth has a whole lot of murder in it, in case you haven’t read it since high school.
Good to see Sturgis is trying new stuff.