In September pre-production began on an all black film version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The film stars Sanaa Lathan, Terrence Howard, Blair Underwood and Evan Ross and is set on the island of Jamaica. This will be the first time that a film version of a Shakespeare play will be directed by an African American woman, Aleta Chappelle. This is not the first version of an all black Macbeth, however.
In 1936 Voodoo Macbeth was produced by The Federal Theater Project (a program under The Works Progress Administration which was developed to stimulate the economy during The Great Depression). The all black production, under the direction of a very young and not yet legendary Orson Welles, was set on a fictional Caribbean island much like Haiti in the 19th century. “The aim was to provide a point of entry into the theatre workforce for black actors and stagehands, and to raise community pride by performing classic plays without reference to the colour of the actors.” This production was very successful. Check out the video clips of the original 1936 performance below.
