26 May 2023
Something Wicked This Way Came… and Saw…and Conquered!
Ribbit Up Productions took on their greatest challenge ever when they decided to stage The Scottish Play - oh, it’s over now, we can call it by its real name, Macbeth 2.3. There, we said it. And there were absolutely no suspicious circumstances in School Play at all. No sprained ankles or bruised backs during performances, no lights mysteriously blowing out, and certainly no broken lanterns sending shards of glass onto the floor causing a show to be stopped. No, those would be Healthy & Safety issues!
But what we did experience was one of the greatest productions of Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy. We saw a kid running around on a plastic horse, babies falling from the sky, Prince Harry (we mean Donalbain) going ‘spare’ over his dog’s bowl, the most romantic knock-knock jokes ever, a frog that wanted its toes back, and some fool in a dress. But we also learnt the identity of the G Block arsonist and H Block Ghost - Hecate, the head witch, a character that Shakespeare probably never wrote.
Most importantly, we witnessed a cast, crew and musician so dedicated to bringing Macbeth 2.3 to life on stage that the play evolved into something new - chilling, tragic and horrifying, and that was just seeing Macbeth morph into Elvis for the play’s unforgettable finale! And speaking of Macbeth, anyone who saw School Play this year will never forget the stupendous performances of our leading actors, Jordan Lee as Macbeth and Jaslyn Mackenzie as Lady Macbeth. They owned the stage and presented performances that were truly the equivalent of any Ribbit Up giants in whose footsteps they walked.
But they didn’t do it alone. For a production of this magnitude they required the perfect cast of supporting actors, and perfect they were. But that would have amounted to nothing without our insanely brilliant crew and the final stitch in the tapestry, Jono Zhang, our one man orchestra. Every member of Ribbit Up Productions, past and present, can smile and be proud of what these students have achieved.
