This Chicago-based performance collective, design studio and film/video production company pulls together shadow puppetry and other striking visuals, innovative sound and live music to create an unusual hybrid of theater and film. It’s a unique, almost intoxicating approach to storytelling. And half the fun is watching the artists scurry about the stage — adjusting acetate figures on old-school projectors, inserting their own silhouettes into various scenes — all while a remarkably engaging film is projected overhead in real time. Local audiences will remember the company’s sold-out run of Frankenstein, which stopped at OZ Arts in 2019. Manual Cinema is back at OZ this weekend with its latest production, a thoughtful “inversion” of Shakespeare’s Macbeth titled The 4th Witch. Presented in partnership with Nashville Shakespeare Festival, the piece follows a young girl, “orphaned by war and later rescued by three witches, who agree to take her on as an apprentice on the condition that she must never use her powers for revenge.” There’s no spoken dialogue, but the live score is richly evocative. A post-show discussion is set for Friday night, and audiences are invited onstage after performances to check out the puppets, projectors, etc. Touching on themes of grief, war and generational conflict, The 4th Witch is recommended for ages 12 and up. But it’s a perfect night out for anyone who appreciates daring, imaginative storytelling.
June 4-6 at OZ Arts
6172 Cockrill Bend Circle
