I would like to thank you for taking the time from what seems to be a very busy schedule to talk to me.

Nicolette Bethel: It's my pleasure to be here.

I'll first like to ask about the company that will be staging this production of "Macbeth". Who and what is Ringplay?

Nicolette Bethel: Well, let me see ... where would be the best place to start? For a number of years the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts was the place where the majority of theatre in New Providence was performed. Now many people may not know that the owners of the theatre and the people who put on the plays were two different sets of people. The management and decision-making about the theatre - its focus, its structure, what it does with its money, and so on - are in the hands of the Board of Directors. This group of people oversees what goes on but they don’t actually put the plays on. Until 1997 or 98, that job was done by the Artistic Director of the Dundas Repertory Season, the Resident Directors and the Management Committee. Each member of the Management Committee held a position that helped to bring a final production together. We had a Financial Comptroller who took care of the money for the Season, a Production Manager who oversaw each show and assigned stage managers, a Publicity Manager who put together all of the ads and saw to it that they were properly placed, and several other managers who worked in the remaining areas to insure the smooth running of a production. While I was here, I was the Publications Manager. My job was to write copy and articles and to contribute to the programmes for all of the productions. In 1998 a number of these managers came together to form a new theatre company.

I'm sorry to interrupt you there but why was there a need to form a new company? I thought that you said that it was working smoothly.

Nicolette Bethel: I don’t know if you want all the gory details.

Go ahead! I’m sure many people are wondering the same question.

Nicolette Bethel: Well, okay. In 1997 Philip, the Artistic Director, was offered a job in Canada, designing and teaching a Theatre Arts programme at the Lester Pearson College of the Pacific. He decided that he was taking a two year leave of absence, since he had been Artistic Director at the Dundas for seventeen years. A new Artistic Director was brought in for the Season starting in January 1998, and the Dundas Board of Directors was undergoing several changes as well. The new Artistic Director wasn’t told how the Management Committee worked, or how the Season was produced, and that caused some friction between him and the Committee. To be fair, I don't think that many board members understood how the Management Committee worked either, so there were some major differences there too. In the end all of the members of the Management Committee resigned their posts. The summer of that same year, the majority of the former managers came together to form Ringplay.

The Philip you are referring to is your husband, Philip Burrows?

Nicolette Bethel: Yes.

So, let’s move on to the meeting when this company was formed.

Nicolette Bethel: Well, the idea was that we wanted to put together a company that was independent of any institution, and that had the ultimate say over what would get produced and how. So in the summer of 98, all the people who were interested got together in the house where Philip and I were staying and discussed the kind of company we wanted. When the meeting was over we had formed Ringplay.

Who were the founding members of this company?

Nicolette Bethel: Well, basically the company was formed around the members of the former Dundas Management Committee. That is, Philip, as Artistic Director, Sammie (Bethell) as Financial Comptroller, Cookie (Allens) as Front of House Manager and a sort of secretary for the group, Marcel Sherman as Productions Manager, David Burrows as Publicity Manager, Reds (Delores Thompson) as Box Office Manager and Jane Poveromo as Bar Manager. As I said earlier, I was the Publications Manager. We were the founding members of Ringplay Productions. Since the founding we have added three new members in Gavin and Carrie Collins and Manny Knowles.

So, the company is formed in 1998 and it's now 2001. Why so long before staging a production?

Nicolette Bethel: Not long after the 1998 meeting, Philip and I went back to Canada for two more years. Reds moved to Long Island the next year and Sammie to Freeport the year after that. So it was not until we came home last year that the rest of us were able to get together and work on this production.

Which leads me to my next question. Why "Macbeth"?

Nicolette Bethel: Now that’s a good question. For a while now David and Gavin had been discussing the idea of producing Macbeth with Rosanna Seaborn, who is a Lyford Cay resident and an actress - you might have seen her in Driving Miss Daisy a few of years ago. About thirty years ago, she and Pauline McCartney, wife of Dr Timothy McCartney, the psychologist, adapted Macbeth for a Bahamian audience, and had approached Gavin with it not long after Daisy, wondering whether the Season would produce it. The time wasn’t right back then, but after the split with the Dundas, members of Ringplay began holding discussions with Rosanna about putting it on. This project has gone through several stages. Rosanna tried to get it produced when she first wrote it but could never work out the right time with the directors to whom she presented it. I believe Cedric Scott was the first person she approached, and she also asked Winston Saunders and Philip. But it wasn’t till around the time that Ringplay was formed that we seriously began to think about producing it. There was a time when David, Gavin and Sammie were holding discussions with Rosanna, but then Sammie moved to Freeport. So David and I began talking about it. I’ve wanted to begin directing seriously for a while, but I didn’t feel anywhere near ready to tackle Shakespeare on my own! On the other hand, for the past three years Philip and I had the opportunity, as part of our teaching duties, to attend the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, and last year David joined Philip and me there as well. Their productions of Shakespeare are excellent - fresh and not at all difficult to understand, so I began to get some ideas about how we could do something similar here. And I really wanted to! As a teacher, I’ve taught Macbeth - it’s one of my favorites, and students always seemed to enjoy it, so it seemed the best Shakespeare play to start with. And this year there’s a bonus - Macbeth is on the BGCSE syllabus.

I’m surprised that your husband isn’t involved with this production.

Nicolette Bethel: Well, it’s not like he isn’t having anything to do with it - we couldn’t put it on without his support! But Philip has gone twenty years without a break from directing, so he’s determined to do so. It’s also important that we develop a number of directors - people have a habit of thinking that Philip is the only person who can direct plays, and so they just seem to sit back and wait for him to do it. We want to break away from that. This production is a collaborative effort.

I know that you are writer but I had never heard about you being a director before. Can you fill me in on that?

Nicolette Bethel: Well, as I said, I’ve been interested in directing for a while, but being married to Philip is just a little intimidating. It’s true that here in Nassau, I'm known more for my writing, but in Canada it’s the other way round. At Pearson I directed or co-directed several shows, and I also conducted drama workshops. I learn more and more with each play. As I say this is a collaboration. I may be listed as director, but David and I started out as co-directors until he took on the role of Macbeth, and we are also working with Anthony Roberts and, Philip Burrows, and Gordon Mills, another seasoned director, has been giving lots of helpful input. I feel that I can't go wrong with the experience that is held by the members of the cast and the company! And of course who better to get tips from than my husband - who, in my opinion, is the best director that I’ve met anywhere.

You said that this production was updated. What do you mean by that?

Nicolette Bethel: Rosanna had made changes to the original Shakespeare text and had actually called it "The Bahamian Macbeth". That was about thirty years ago. I have further updated the text. We’ve made several cuts in the action, taking out some of the Scotland-specific stuff and changing some of the archaic words to more current ones. We are not really getting rid of the heart of the Shakespearean language, however, but modernizing a lot of the references, so that we’re not dealing with kings and castles but with prime ministers and mansions.

Is this also a "modern dress" production? By that I mean, will we not be seeing the usual Shakespeare tights and other costumes usually seen?

Nicolette Bethel: No, there are no tights in this production! (Laughs) It's totally modern dress! After all, it’s set in a place that, if it isn’t the Bahamas in 2001, it’s a place a whole lot like it.

What other new elements have been added?

Nicolette Bethel: I think that one of the major new additions is the music. I’m not going to say anything more about that here, though, because I really want to save that as a surprise.

How do you think that Shakespeare purists will react to the changes that have been made?

Nicolette Bethel: I don't really know. Some of them might hate them, but others might think they’re fine. What we really want to do is make the production accessible to people who don’t know Shakespeare as well as to those who know him and love him. The story and most of the language is intact. All of the great monologues are there! My understanding is that there has not been a Shakespeare play produced in New Providence for around twenty years, and so we’d like this to be a positive experience. Only time will tell!

So when does this production happen? Is it being staged at the Dundas?

Nicolette Bethel: No. This production will be staged at the College of The Bahamas as a part of the College's annual Colour of Harmony celebration. One of the things we’re hoping to do is to break the audience’s expectations of the traditional stage set-up, where actors are separated from the audience by a proscenium arch. We’re producing this in a much more flexible space, and I hope that it works. It’ll certainly be different - the actors will be so close to the audience that people can touch them. We are in performance three weekends (Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings) March 22-24, March 29-31 and April 5-7. The first weekend is being aimed at students with discount tickets of five dollars. Those performances begin at eight o'clock. The other two weekends the performances will begin at eight-thirty. Tickets for general admission is only ten dollars and we don't know of any place else where one can see a live performance for such a small amount.

Anything you want to say about the cast?

Nicolette Bethel: It's a big cast, as is the case with most of Shakespeare's work, and it's a mixture of veterans as well as newcomers. I’m very pleased to say that some of the cast members are also COB students - something that we really want to encourage. I don't really want to single anyone out but a complete cast list is on our website at www.ringplay.com.

A website? I see that not only is your production modern but your company is as well.

Nicolette Bethel: Yes, we formed the company and got the name registered, and when we returned we also registered our domain name.

I guess that there is no question then that people can also contact you via email.

Nicolette Bethel: That's correct. Our email address is onstage@ringplay.com.

Is there anything else that you would like to say about the upcoming production?

Nicolette Bethel: I’d like to say that there is no way that I could do this by myself. I said it before, but I can’t say it too often. The support of the Ringplay team has been incredible. It started out with David and me co-directing but since he is now playing Macbeth that makes me THE director. David continues to assist with direction as does Anthony Roberts and Philip, and as I said, Gordon Mills and Keith Wisdom have also made their own contributions. The other company members who are in Nassau have all done their part, and Sammie did his before he left for Freeport. Manny Knowles has been very helpful with publicity and on the technical side of the production. And COB has been outstanding! The Colour of Harmony team has been fully behind us, and has given us more help than I can say. I’d just like to take the time out to plug the other Colour of Harmony events that will be taking place during the weeks that the play is running, starting on March 26 with the official opening. I’m sure that we will be working with them again in the future!

I would like to thank you for taking this time to talk to me and I look forward to seeing your production soon.

Nicolette Bethel: My pleasure. Thanks to you too.