Many European Union staffers were once frustrated actors. Either that, or frustrated journalists who were previously frustrated actors. Or frustrated actors-turned-interpreters who are now SUPER frustrated after years of having to regurgitate other people’s inanity, even if the job does pay eight thousand a month, and what they’d really like to do is grab that microphone and explain the facts of a messy divorce to all 116 members of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. In Gaelic. Of course.
This brings me to the Brussels Shakespeare Society.
The BSS is a loose association of frustrated actors who decided to cash in big-time by working at large public institutions. We also perform Shakespeare because it’s cheaper than therapy and we get to wear big, frilly clothes. And this summer, the BSS will hold a Shakespeare Summer Festival from 1-11 June at the Espace Lumen near Place Flagey.
The centrepiece of this Festival will be a production of Macbeth, a grim but joyful tale about a deputy head of unit who gleefully hacks his office-mates to death because they never wash the mugs in the break room.
Also, his wife, Lady Macbeth, thinks that her husband should have been a head of unit years ago. With the extra money, they’d now be living in a big lakeside house in Genval with the local train that runs right to Schuman without a single stop. But nooooo, he’s just a deputy head of unit, and they’re still squeezed into their little 2-bedroom in Etterbeek that doesn’t even have a garage or a garden.
Years ago, Lady Macbeth tried to launch a professional coaching career but that didn’t work because she went down a Netflix rabbit-hole and never climbed out.
Are you an EU staffer? Do you work in Brussels? Are you alive? Are you brain dead, but not clinically dead? How many fingers am I holding up? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then you should come to see Macbeth. This play will help you out. It will give you valuable tips on how to not achieve your dreams.
Also, the actors are fantastic. The guy playing Macbeth is actually Scottish. I mean, wow. Lady Macbeth is great, too. She really puts those professional coaching skills to work. And the witches are fabulous, hot, and crazy, but also deeply emphatic in their highly intelligent approach to the situation. You can really see where they’re coming from.
Hey! Don’t think that our Macbeth is the same as the Cohen brothers’ Macbeth. Oh no. For one, their Macbeth didn’t have a special cameo appearance by famed Belgian actor Benoît Poelvoorde. Ours doesn’t either. But we do have sexy dance numbers. You read that right. And cool steampunk costumes.
Also, the festival features three short original plays written by valiant frustrated actors who are still looking for their Big Break. By Big Break, I mean a Temporary Agent contract at DG ECHO.
The first play, Shortly to Go, is directed by local theatre luminary Tim Myers. The play was penned by Dimitrios Stasinopoulos and Illeas Konteas. Shortly to Go was the winner of the BSS’s 2021 playwriting competition. Pretty cool, eh? An award-winning play about Shakespeare written in Belgium by two Greeks. I haven’t read it yet, but the word is, it’s dynamite.
The second, Will.I.am am I?, is directed by all-around bonhomme Guilhem Chevalier. It was written by ‘Master of Chaos’ Stephen Challens, who is also the director of our Macbeth production. This imaginative work considers whether Shakespeare actually wrote his own masterpieces, or whether he farmed out the writing to the lead singer of the Black Eyed Peas.
The third, Yellow, is directed by Geoffrey Mamdani, who also wrote the piece. Geoff is a speechwriter at the Commission. I’m amazed he found so many rhymes for Temporary Protection Directive. Supposedly, he gained inspiration for his writing by staring at looping Berlaymont B-roll shots on the Ebs audio-visual channel.
So have a look. You’ll say, ‘Wow, Macbeth showed me what not to do in life. I wonder if Lady Macbeth needs a new client. I wonder if she’d like a new love interest. I wonder if I need a therapist.’ Coming to our Festival might save you the money.
Patrick Stephenson is a frustrated person who sometimes performs in amateur plays. He is also the producer of Macbeth and the treasurer of the Brussels Shakespeare Society.
Recently it occurred to me that no matter how bad how presidents tend to be, their successors are usually worse. So much worse, in fact, that we’re obliged to re-think our terrible opinions of previous presidents.
The following article appeared in The Huffington Post in September 2013.