Makbetamaximus

“Double, double, toil and trouble,” indeed! Shakespeare’s punchiest tragedy gets a makeover in a way that only the prodigious Filipino multi-hyphenate Khavn De La Cruz could deliver. Unfolding in the Municipality of Marcos, Ilocos Norte and Khavn’s own Burroughsian Interzone of Mondomanila – also the title of the director’s crazed horror-comedy-crime drama, which premiered at IFFR 2012 – this mash-up of styles, genres, moods and atmospheres features a cast of over 100 performers and defies any easy description, even with so familiar a text. But as Khavn says of his source material, "Usually, word is king. Here, text is just one of the many cogs. It’s a column, a roof shingle, an ornament."

This is a Macbeth for our chaotic, fragmented, attention-deficit times. Khavn’s thorough understanding of Shakespeare’s text is beyond question; it would be impossible to create a work of such irrepressible, fiery originality without it. But this is unlike any other adaptation; Makbetamaximus is both a striking work in its own right, and a continuation and expansion of its creator’s artistic statement, which to date includes over 50 features and 200 shorts, eight books of poetry, two short story collections, a novel and 40 albums.

– Ian Haydn Smith