“Fair is foul, and foul is fair,” say the witches at the beginning of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a phrase which alludes to the fact that nothing is as it seems, a motif that is carried throughout the play. The Middle School will be putting on its own performance of Macbeth on May 18 and 19, but just as the witches’ words suggest, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

“Meet the Macbeths is like [the movie] Meet the Fockers, but still Macbeth,” said the play’s director, Mr. Bob Bayless, who is assembling the play using the students from his seventh and eighth-grade drama class. The play will be a “Seussified” spoof of Shakespeare’s masterpiece and “is still about Macbeth wanting to be the king,” explained Bayless, “but there’s a comedic twist to it.” For example, in the TBS version, the title character, played by seventh grader Will Mahon, is killed by a tree.

Bayless admits it was challenging to find a production that would take advantage of his all-male class. “The class is 12 boys, so it was hard finding something [they can put on],” he said. “I tried to find something with Shakespeare even though it is [really] not.” As a result, some of the boys will have to play female roles, a common practice during Shakespeare’s day in the sixteenth century.

“Playing a girl in the play is just weird – plain out weird,” said Anthony Cavallo, who plays Penelope, the boy-crazed neighbor’s daughter. “Macbeth is played by Will Mahon, Lady Macbeth is played by Tommy Rose, and the three witches are played by Vince Bonanni , Andrew Armstrong, and Tommy McCloskey,” added Bayless.

Seventh grader Tommy Rose said that “I am very excited to be in this play because it is the first time that I am performing in front of a pretty large crowd and I think that the play will be very successful.” On the contrary, Andrew Weisz said that “ the whole idea of performing in front of a lot of people is very nerve wracking for me, but when I performed my TEDx talk it really prepped me for this drama play.”

Bayless believes the play will be a fun way for students to briefly forget about their final exam preparation. “We are looking forward to producing [the play] the week before exams,” concluded Bayless. “It should provide a moment of entertainment and relaxation from the hard studying [the students] should all be doing.”