MacBird!
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MacBird! is a 1966 satire by Barbara Garson. It was self-published ('Grassy Knoll Press') as a pamphlet, and the full text appeared in the December, 1966 issue of Ramparts magazine. It was staged in February, 1967.
The play superimposes the
Plot
The play burlesques Shakespeare's Macbeth, with lines drawn from other plays such as
In the play,
The play also features the Three Witches, in the form of a student radical, a Nation of Islam member, and a working-class union member. The recently deceased Adlai Stevenson II was depicted as 'The Egg of Head' (the term 'egghead' having been coined in the 1950s to describe intellectual supporters of Stevenson).
In a 2006
"People used to ask me then, 'Do you really think Johnson killed Kennedy?'" Garson, when she was 65, recalls. "I never took that seriously. I used to say to people, 'If he did, it's the least of his crimes.' It was not what the play was about. The plot was a given."[1]
Macbird! began as a short satirical sketch by Garson, a recent graduate of the
Productions
The play, which opened just three years after Kennedy's assassination, was controversial. Some believe that authorities pressured theaters in
Levine, who worked with Garson to develop the sketch to a full-length play, was the original director of Macbird! His bold theatrical vision marked the production throughout the run; near the end of the previews, however, he was replaced by
The original cast included:
- Stacy Keach as MacBird
- Rue McClanahan as Lady MacBird[2]
- Paul Hecht as John Ken O'Dunc
- William Devane as Robert Ken O'Dunc
- John Pleshette as Ted Ken O'Dunc
- John Clark as Earl of Warren
- Cleavon Little as Witch 2
- David Spielberg as Crony
The original cast recorded a two-disc album of the script on February 6, 1967. The album was released in a box set, along with a copy of the script, on the Evergreen label (Evergreen - EVR 004).
John Clark left the production early to marry Lynn Redgrave. Cleavon Little made his professional acting debut in the play. The play had a long engagement, with a different cast in Los Angeles, where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968 while running for the Democratic presidential nomination. MacBird! was also produced at the Committee Theater in San Francisco around 1968.
See also
References
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
- ^ Martin, Douglas. "Rue McClanahan, Actress and Golden Girl, Dies at 76," The New York Times, Friday, June 4, 2010.