Some theater productions ask audiences to silence their phones. This one asks a single cast member to get plastered before the curtain goes up.
That’s the delightfully unhinged premise behind Shit-faced Shakespeare, the internationally touring comedy that transforms one of the Bard’s greatest works into an evening of carefully orchestrated chaos. The hit production is making its way to Columbus this fall with a very tipsy take on Macbeth.
Here’s how it works: before each performance, one actor gets intentionally intoxicated. The rest of the cast, who remain perfectly sober, then attempt to make it through Shakespeare’s bloody tale of ambition, betrayal, witches, and murder while adapting to whatever unpredictable choices their inebriated castmate throws their way.
The result is part Shakespeare, part improv, and part train wreck you can’t look away from. No two performances are exactly alike, which is a big reason the show has become an international hit since launching in the U.K. in 2010.
Honestly, Macbeth might be the perfect play for the format.
Characters are already hallucinating, making terrible decisions, and unraveling spectacularly. One drunk Scottish noble almost feels historically accurate.
Columbus audiences can catch Shit-faced Shakespeare: Macbeth at the Southern Theatre on Friday, Sept. 25, with the show beginning at 8 p.m.
Tickets start at $34.50 and go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, July 31. They’re available through CAPA online, by phone at (614) 469-0939, or at the CAPA Ticket Center inside the Ohio Theatre.
