WHAT’s to be done? Well, for start, draw the curtains, turn off the lights and join that most unqueenly of queens, Lady Macbeth, in the witching hour for a little toil and trouble in the run-up to Halloween.
Macbeth – an “up-close and personal theatrical reboot” of Shakespeare’s powerful tragedy – is a world premiere (presented by Big Telly Theatre company) in this year’s (mostly) online Belfast International Arts Festival (BIAF), but the lady herself, Belfast actress Nicky Harley, is determined to show a softer side to the woman who would be queen.
It’s a “dream role” for the Big Telly stalwart and Game of Throne actress who studied drama at Ulster University and has since immersed herself in many worthy new works, quietly honing her craft for a moment such as this.
Born in Derry, Harley trained under practitioners including French master clown, Philippe Gaulier and Irish actress and theatre and opera director Fiona Shaw, and has herself facilitated actors’ performance development, most recently with Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, before emerging as a brave new voice of Zoom theatre earlier this year.
Embracing the digital platform has been a necessary 2020 skills set for all artists, of course, in this 58th Belfast Festival which launched digitally with a programme for the times in which we now live.
A cornerstone of Northern Ireland’s cultural calendar, this year’s schedule features an extended Talks & Ideas programme, alongside theatre, dance and music performances, all reimagined for a digital audience and exploring on-trend issues such as gender equality, multiculturalism and the climate crisis among other things.
Musical drama film Sarafina, set in Soweto during South Africa's apartheid era, centres on the lives of black school girl Sarafina and her activist teacher, Mary Masombuka (Whoopi Goldberg), while Portuguese theatre maker and performer Pedro Penim’s DOING IT, zooms in on his own secret obsession with remote islands across the world.
Closer to home, the Belfast Agreement is sung in four-part harmony in Singing Struggle and Agreement, composed by Clare Salters who worked in the Northern Ireland Office during the negotiations.
Meanwhile, in an actual live (outdoors) event, Blame Game will see multi-skilled members of Kundle Cru share their passion for urban dance and circus in Belfast’s CS Lewis Square through a new genre for storytelling, pointing specifically to the “dirty politics” of scapegoating and finger-pointing which, sadly, continues ad nauseam in the world beyond the square.
But, back to the local headline show and the most extreme and violent presentation of finger-pointing in 11th century Scotland when three witches stage manage the downfall of Macbeth in spectacular fashion – the play a lesson still valid for today, says 38 year-old Harley who probes the “vulnerable side” of Big Telly’s Lady Macbeth.
“This is a play about power, manipulation, about desperation, about exploring people’s vulnerabilities and that need for control and also the loss of control,” Harley reflects. “I think, considering human nature, a play like this is always going to be relevant. Any one of us is capable of being any one of the characters in Macbeth and it could be any one of us chosen by these witches to meddle with…”
Will we have some sympathy, then, for the much-maligned female protagonist?
“I hope that people could identify with her” comes the ready response. “This is Shakespeare and the character goes to quite extreme means to achieve all the goals in her head, but I hope to find a connection where people could understand her reasons for doing what she’s doing.
“You might see your cousin in her or the woman who works in the local shop because there is a real, complex person at her heart. These people do walk around. The challenge for me is to root her in an everyday woman.”
Macbeth is Harley’s fourth online production since March and while in many ways our world has become smaller, performing on a digital platform has provided, she argues, a new opportunity to connect with audiences across the globe.
Actors may be performing from their “own wee hubs”, but thanks to Big Telly founder Zoe Seaton’s deft directing skills, it looks like everyone is performing in the same space. Additionally, production and technical stage mangers Giles Stoakley and Sinead Owens have been credited with providing their own kind of wizardry when it comes to special effects.
“These guys have been on every show and have been described as the real supernatural element with the things they can do on Zoom,” Harley enthuses. “It’s really unbelievable – they have 'inserted' actors into people’s homes through technology and the audience becomes fully involved, whether through set tasks or being ‘spot-lit’ and appearing onscreen themselves. The Zoom show is constantly evolving and shifting and I think this Macbeth is going to blow people away.
“At the beginning, I really missed those moments you take for granted, like feeling someone’s energy in a room. Then, I realised I was focusing on the wrong thing; it wasn’t about what was absent, it was about appreciating what was available and the things we could achieve outside of a real theatre.”
There is, however, one small ‘technical’ glitch which, ever the perfectionist, Harley has worked hard to overcome: being a natural born Derry girl, it appears she has been struggling a little with her ‘haths’ and ‘doths’.
“It wouldn’t come naturally to me, being a Derry girl,” she laughs down the line. “Once you get hooked into that way of speaking, it finds a place in your voice. For ‘Bath’, for instance, I would say ‘baff’ – so I had to rediscover the ‘th’ sound because there are quite a lot of ‘haths’ in Shakespeare!”
Archaic dialogue certainly wasn’t her challenge as a citizen of King’s Landing in the eighth season of HBO's Game of Thrones – an experience she describes as “surreal” and something which has given her a taste for more work in television in the future.
“We filmed in Belfast and it was one of those moments that was completely surreal,” she recalls. “One day I was on set and there were 600 extras there, all in full gear, like a full village had just popped up. Opportunities like that are a treat and a pure escape. Acting has always been my escape, really, and I don’t really know what life is without it.”
Primarily an actor, she considers herself a ‘maker’ in the broadest sense when it comes to the arts, having worked with a now defunct costume company in Dublin, as well as with lighting teams and in stage management. It is probably one of the reasons why she has adapted so readily to the new age of live-streamed theatre.
“I am happy to contribute to anything that is about realising a story through art,” she concludes before rushing back to rehearsals via Zoom at her home in Belfast, where she lives with a very understanding house-mate.
“I think every actor should spend at least one day working in these elements, not just because it makes you a better actor, but because it helps you appreciate every single member of your team. It makes you a kinder person."
:: Macbeth, directed by Zoe Seaton, can be viewed online October 14-17; tickets at belfastinternationalartsfestival.com/event/macbeth/
Full festival programme at belfastinternationalartsfestival.com/2020-festival
