Taiyuan Puppet Theatre Company Present Macbeth in Shadow Play

With Taiyuan Puppet Theatre Company’s innovative way of presenting Macbeth, SCU students were impressed by the mixture of traditional shadow puppet play and modern theater on October 21, 2016, in Chuan Shian Hall on the main campus. Students were even given a chance for heads-on experience of acting out the play by themselves, which left them unforgettable memories.

During the play, suspenseful background music, dramatic utterances of lines, skilled puppet maneuver, and flickering light effect led the audience into a feast of exploring the darkness and unrestrained lust within human’s heart. In addition, the dramatic plot of the story along with the demonstration of shadow puppet play attracted and held the audience’s attention.

Macbeth was about a brave and brilliant general who was claimed to be the future King of Scotland by three witches’ prophecies. Under his own ambition and his wife’s instigation, Macbeth was gradually devoured by his strong desire. Eventually, he murdered the king and took the throne for himself. However, out of self-accusation, he soon became a tyrant and protected himself with brutal means. Hands stained with blood, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth wracked with guilt and illusion which in the end brought about their madness and death.

Macbeth is the shortest yet the darkest, the most powerful tragedy among Shakespeare’s works. Classic lines in the play are as follows:

Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idot, full of sound and fury

Signifying nothing.

--《Macbeth》Act 5, Scene 5, Lines 17-28