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Straits Times

Made in Johor: How Shakespeare In The Park's Macbeth set made its way to Fort Canning

Made in Johor: How Shakespeare In The Park's Macbeth set made its way to Fort Canning JOHOR – In a Johor factory, on a March morning, stands more than 200 rusty columns shooting skywards, arranged in bundles to evoke either a sinuous dune or a towering castle complex. In April, they would be dismantled, ferried in a dozen lorries across the Causeway, and reassembled in Fort Canning Park . Singapore Repertory Theatre's Shakespeare In The Park might be a Singaporean production, but its outdoor sets have always been made in a small Malaysian town known as Pekan Nanas. The productions' epic sets – this one goes up to 14m high – are too big to be built in compact Singapore, so they are fabricated in a spacious town a 30-minute drive from Tuas Checkpoint. Come May 7 to June 1, director Guy Unsworth is staging one of William Shakespeare's great tragedies – Macbeth. Actor Ghafir Akbar, two-time Best Actor winner at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards, and actress Julie Wee will reunite after acting together in 2024's A Midsummer Night's Dream. This time, they are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth at the outdoor theatrical experience where audiences can picnic under the stars. But one glance at the abstract geometry of the set, and audiences know they are not in Scotland . Unsworth, who set Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in an oil refinery, is transplanting this tale of ambition and power to another world. Set designer Richard Kent – who also worked on the 2024 set that won The Straits Times Life Theatre Award for Best Set – brings up the Star Wars (1977 to present) and Dune (2021 to present) films as two reference points, worlds 'which are human but from another place' and 'don't feel like they belong to Earth '. Unsworth says of the boom in sci-fi epics in popular culture: 'They allow us to escape to another world while, on some deep and subconscious level, are direct reflections of the world that we recognise.' Unsworth and Kent also reference places on Earth – the basalt columns in Iceland and Giant's Causeway in Ireland. Indeed, standing before the unfinished set, one already feels the sense of smallness amid the colossal set, as if one were in the presence of nature's awe-inspiring formations. Their idea is to create a version of Macbeth where copper is the currency – which is reflected in the landscape – and the title character's murderous quest for political power is also a quest to control the resources of the land. To bring their idea to life, craftsmen at Arina Hogan Builders have been working since January. The set for the Singapore Repertory Theatre's Shakespeare In The Park is built in Pekan Nanas, Johor, based on the model (front) provided by the set designer. ST PHOTO: SHAWN HOO Marc Andre Therrien, 74, technical consultant for the show, is on set when this reporter visits the factory – taking SRT's group of stage managers, choreographers, lighting teams and other crew members around . 'The designer wanted sand, but it's too complicated and problematic because it's abrasive and it gets everywhere – in your shoes and in the dressing room ,' he says, turning instead to a material used for the flooring of playgrounds. The former director of technical services at circus producer Cirque du Soleil Singapore from 1994 to 2000 knows a thing or two about athletic sets. He has picked out for the main set plywood and metal, materials which he knows can withstand the elements at Fort Canning Park. Scenic designer Natalie Chung – Therrien's wife and a former interior designer – is also on set, hand-painting the columns with a reddish-brown paint for a rusty texture. Marc Andre Therrien, technical consultant for the Macbeth set, at the backstage of the set. ST PHOTO: SHAWN HOO 'The biggest challenge is the towering height of the set,' she says, having to climb onto a scaffold to paint the highest parts. The duo have worked together on more than 10 Shakespeare In The Park sets and it is something they look forward to every year. 'Every Shakespeare In The Park set has its own distinct personality, and I always manage to use different materials ,' she adds, saying that one of her favourite sets to design was a large book-shaped one for The Tempest in 2015. Scenic artist Natalie Chung painting the columns of the set of Shakespeare In The Park. ST PHOTO: SHAWN HOO Unsworth is careful not to reveal too many things about the upcoming show. But he lets on that the prophetic speech of the witches has been garbled through artificial intelligence (AI) software in a combination of South-east Asian languages and the original rhythms of the Shakespearean language. 'The witches (in Macbeth) represent a source of knowledge that Macbeth very readily just believes and accepts. They are there to make forecasts of the future and he just believes them. Isn't that what we're doing right now? We're just accepting that AI knows everything.' The maze-like set, Kent says, is built in a way that makes it difficult to guess where actors will appear and disappear. In Britain , where Kent and Unsworth are based, it is not common for a set designer or director to be able to look at the set until it is bumped in to the theatre. Kent, on the car ride to Singapore after a morning in Pekan Nanas, says: 'It's a bit of a treat here to get to see the whole thing.' Book It/Shakespeare In The Park: Macbeth Where: Fort Canning Park When: May 7 to June 1, 7.30pm (Thursdays to Sundays); park opens at 6pm Admission: $60 to $188 Info: Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.