Okay, guys. It's just a personal preference. I'd have to see the whole Zimbabwean-Macbeth to see if it works--maybe I'd like it a lot. Typically, though, I don't care for those kinds of stretches. I saw the Royal Shakespeare Company do Macbeth set in the antibellum South some years ago in London and it just didn't work FOR ME. I found the juxtaposition too jarring and too many things that didn't make sense. If I didn't already know the story, I would have been super-lost and confused. A few days later I saw As You Like It at The Globe (yep, THE GLOBE)--all the actors were covered in mud and grass and most spent the bulk of the show on their bellies, writhing around in either red clay or brown clay. I didn't get it. Maybe I'm just too dumb. But I sort of felt offended, like this was actually making Shakespeare LESS accessible, not more accessible. Like modern art, I sort of felt like there was an inside joke that I was not privy to, and I felt like I was being called an idiot for not "getting it". It was somehow reminiscent of the Emporer not having any clothes on. Was I the only one who didn't understand this weirdness, or was I just...stupid? Too often, I think that's how a lot of audience members come out of a Shakespeare play that's been messed with a lot. Not feeling closer, but even farther removed and more foreign.
I'm just saying.

You're absolutely right Kara. Art for arts sake just sucks, and I know what you mean about so-called post-modern and contemporary art... most of the time I just don't get it. But it *can* be done tastefully, and should. I think the difference says a lot about the director; are they trying way too hard to be an "artiste" or trying to bring Shakespeare to the people? That belly-crawling thing sounds like the former. I really doubt their thought process was "let's make Shakespeare relevant and socially poignant to our modern audience." I'll bet it was more along the lines of "let's confuse them to the point where even we seem like intellectual, avant-garde visionaries." What I'm talking about is the former.

It's like the guy who draws colored stripes on solid-color canvases. Great. I could do that in kindergarten you quack.

Don't worry Kara, there is no inside joke... they just want you to think that.