BLACK AND WHITE
AND DREAD ALL OVER

Chicago-based Manual Cinema employs an extraordinary suite of “old-school” technologies and techniques to bring a response to Shakespeare’s Macbeth to the Emerson Paramount theater as part of the Arts Emerson series. With no spoken dialogue, the company uses shadow puppets, projected pantomime, live music, and recorded sound effects to portray the life of a fictional girl whose family and home are destroyed by the warlord Macbeth.

Set in the era of silent film, stills of World War I era are interpolated amid Sarah Fornace’s pantomimed and yet evocative portrayal of a little girl who flees invading forces. Rescued by a witch, the girl discovers her own abilities to conjure and uses them to curse Macbeth (Jeffrey Paschal).

The appropriately named Manual Cinema creates a cinematic experience in real time. Precise direction (Drew Dir) gives us perfectly synchronized movement of slides on overhead projectors along with sound effects and music (Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter, original score and sound design) to create the immersive experience of cinema. There is no subterfuge here—the projectors, the puppeteers, the actors, and the musicians are all visible on the stage should one wish to look away from the larger screen suspended above them.

Few will choose to do that, however, at least not for very long. The gripping 65 minutes of storytelling, which employs many of Macbeth’s most familiar elements—the dangling dagger, blood-stained palms, a walking forest—commands attention and fascinated admiration for the story itself as well as for the method of conveying it.

photos by Katie Doyle
art by Drew Dir

The 4th Witch
A Manual Cinema Production
Emerson Paramount Center, 559 Washington St.
approximately 65 minutes, no intermission
ends on November 9, 2025
for tickets, visit Arts Emerson

for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston