Bard Bites! - A Walking Shadow

Portland’s experimental Shakespeare company, Speculative Drama brings you an all-new original production based on the Bard’s most infamous queen, Lady Macbeth. Perched at the intersection of feminist confessional, immersive fringe show, and classical text, A Walking Shadow explores the effects of patriarchy on the interpretation of women in Shakespeare over the last 400 years, focusing on Lady Macbeth’s character in the original text versus her stereotypes.

Part of the Bard Bites! festival, this immersive love letter to theatre, music, and complex women is a one-hour multidisciplinary exploration featuring new music and writing by Speculative Drama leads Myrrh Larsen and Megan Skye Hale. A Walking Shadow follows our “fiend-like queen” through her famous sleepwalking scene, repeated and reinterpreted by breaking down the walls between actor, character, and audience. Steeped in song, blood, love, and loss, this incredible one woman show plays for just three performances, so don’t miss your chance to catch it!

About The Performers:

A Walking Shadow co-writer and actor Megan Skye Hale brings an extraordinary sensitivity and depth to this examination of one of Shakespeare’s most controversial women. Megan has played Lady Macbeth in over five productions and brings more than ten years of experience as a Shakespearean actor, deviser, and movement director to the stage. Drawing on her Masters in Classical Acting (London Academy for Music and Dramatic Arts) and years of professional experience, she dives into the history, mythology, and textual analysis of Macbeth's "dearest partner in greatness" to discover the hidden nuance and deep emotional complexity within the character and her relationships.

A Walking Shadow co-writer, musician, and composer Myrrh Larsen brings to life the inner world of Lady Macbeth through six original rock songs, representing the effect the events of the play have on our queen, as well as her own intrusive thoughts, private musings, and personal struggles. Expressing the intricate web of assumptions, emotions, and plot points which surround Lady Macbeth as a surreal musical dreamscape, Myrrh brings a unique dimensionality to the stage, creating a production which feels like a “duet with herself”.

What To Expect:

A Walking Shadow is a Pay-What-You-Are-Able world premier workshop production, part of a three weekend Shakespeare mini-festival including a series of free Shakespeare pop-ups, Bard Bites!

A Walking Shadow Written, Devised, and Performed by: Megan Skye Hale* and Myrrh Larsen*

Speculative Drama Artistic Director: Megan Skye Hale*, Creative and Technical Director: Myrrh Larsen*

*indicates Speculative Drama company member

Speculative Drama is a program under Misfit Academy, a performance oriented 501(c)3 and all donations are tax-deductible.

A note on accessibility:

All venues are ADA accessible and accessible by public transit. Masks are highly encouraged for audience members.

Performers will move throughout the venues, and audience members should be prepared to be within 6 foot proximity of unmasked performers and other audience members.

Please email us at speculative.drama@gmail.com with any accommodation questions or concerns.

About Speculative Drama:

Speculative Drama aims to reclaim the relevance of myths, fairy tales, and classical texts through immersive, live theatrical performances. Our goal is to better reflect the diversity of the communities which we serve, and to show fellow people of marginalized identities that we, too, have a place in the classics. Through site-specific theatre, rich and immersive soundscapes, and an extremely intimate setting we explore the intersection of classic stories and unconventional storytelling - creating an atmosphere of inclusion and innovation while honoring and maintaining the original texts or source materials.

Praise for past Speculative Drama productions:

“Magical [...] storytelling with expressive musical score, highlighted by a touching and vulnerable performance by a force of nature in the Portland art scene, Megan Skye Hale.” - Artpunk Club

“As masterful as the Bard was, in this case, it’s the contemporary artists, with their verve and vision, who hold us in awe…In this environment… iambic pentameter sounds as natural as water rippling over rocks.” — Linda Ferguson, Willamette Week on Twelfth Night https://www.wweek.com/arts/theater/2024/01/09/speculative-drama-performs-william-shakespeares-twelfth-night-at-local-dive-bar-angelos/

“The contemporary vision of the classic ‘Scottish Play’ brings themes of loss, insanity, desire and the supernatural during our own precarious times.”

- Jason Vondersmith, Portland Tribune

Photo Credits: Promotional design by Myrrh Larsen, juice box and apple illustration by Therese Arturo