MANUAL CINEMA’S THE 4TH WITCH

Boil, boil, toil and trouble… a man not born of woman saw Manual Cinema’s production of The 4th Witch, should you?

Manual Cinema’s The 4th Witch is a fantastic new tale, inspired by elements of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which a girl escapes war and flees into a dark forest. Told through shadow puppetry, actors in silhouette and live music (without dialogue or narration), The 4th Witch begins on the eve of an invasion of a small town by the local warlord, Macbeth. The girl flees the invading army and escapes into the nearby forest. Orphaned and exiled, she is rescued by a witch, who adopts her as an apprentice. As she becomes more skilled in witchcraft, her grief and rage draw her into a nightmarish quest for vengeance against the warlord who killed her parents: Macbeth.

The 4th Witch, an inversion of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, explores themes of grief, war, generational conflict, and cycles of violence through the collateral damage left behind on the battleground.

CONSEPT & DIRECTION: DREW DIR

STARRING: LIZI BRIET, LEAH CASEY, SARAH FORNACE, JULIA MILLER, JEFFREY PASCHAL

MUSICIANS: EMMA HOSPELHORN (KEYBOARDS, VOX), LIA KOHL (CELLO, VOX), LUCY LITTLE (VIOLIN, VOX)

Braving an inclement weather report, which included the dangers of accumulating ice and snow, my wife and I took the trip to SUNY Oswego to witness a unique and satisfying stage experience, The 4th Witch, presented by Manual Cinema. It’s not often we as the public see something wholly unique and original anymore. Afterall, there is a hard truth to “Every story we’ve told has been told before, it’s how you tell it that makes the difference.” This will become more true as we move into the future. We now live in an era where AI writing is rampant, and AI images are everywhere. Each has their respective negative nuances; ranging from the choices in verbiage used to art that once was flawed and now is too perfect, and as a result both are soulless. Manual Cinema’s The 4th Witch is far from the AI slop we are bludgeoned with on social media. In fact, it is the most unique presentation I have ever watched.

The production uses Shakespeare’s classic tale of murder and the supernatural, Macbeth, as the source material. It plays off the Three Weird Sisters, aka the witches, of the venerable play we probably shouldn’t continue mentioning the name of (there is a curse assigned to it after all). Much of what is used in modern fiction revolving around witches was established in the play, and The 4th Witch runs with that ball. It’s The Sword in the Stone, but instead of Merlin teaching a young man how to be king, we have a witch in training. As the synopsis indicated, the plot focuses on a young girl whose parents are killed by Macbeth’s war machines, and what happens after she stumbles upon a cabin in the woods… and that’s about as much as I want to tell you.

Combining elements of an animated movie with a stage play, The 4th Witch somehow manages to pull the trick off seamlessly. And it does so by hiding in plain sight. It is performed live by a troupe of a half dozen performers through the use of puppets and shadow imagery, and you see them the entire time, yet they do not take away from the experience, in fact, this enhances it! There is no dialogue, and the score is also played on stage, by a trio of musicians taking over stage right. On stage left is the production team, not quite hiding in the shadows, creating the presentation as we watch. And at center stage? The screen, upon which the visual aesthetic is primarily in shades of black and white intermixed with red when needed.

There is not one single actor or performer to “stand out” in a production of this sort. The troupe as a whole deserves accolades for pulling this off. Everything is timed, everything placed just right at the exact moment needed. The team effortlessly moves like a machine to create a living, breathing motion picture experience… on the stage. There is a reason the production company named itself Manual Cinema… it is absolutely that, a movie made by hand as we watched it.

This was absolutely lovely to experience. I’ve never seen anything remotely like this production, and would like to see many more. And even if the themes and elements are things we’ve seen before, they manner in which Manual Cinema presented this is what makes it stand out as quality art. If I were asked, I’d suggest Manual Cinema do an adaptation of Watership Down next, but that’s me playing favorites. I could see the myth sequence of the theatrical adaption in my head using these puppets and shadows. They’ve already done A Christmas Carol, so why not? 

Manual Cinema’s The 4th Witch continues its tour of the United States with a performance in Iowa City on April 17th, and a 3 day long engagement in Nashville, TN June 4-6. Tickets are still available for these shows.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.