Thousands of viewers tune into Oddsocks Productions’ live stream of Macbeth

Derbyshire theatre company Oddsocks Productions hooked thousands of viewers with a live version of Macbeth created in the founders’ home during lockdown.
Oddsocks Productions artistic director Andy Barrow.Oddsocks Productions artistic director Andy Barrow.
Oddsocks Productions artistic director Andy Barrow.

More than 3,000 viewers tuned in to the show on its opening night, giving the company incentive to do the same with A Midsummer Night’s Dream which will stream live on June 19 at 7pm.

The abridged version of Macbeth can now be seen on the Oddsocks’ website, www.oddsocks.co.uk

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Creative producer Elli Mackenzie, who played Lady Macbeth, said: “We didn’t know whether anyone would tune in, but just before we went on air our director who was hosting the performance through his streaming theatre in Los Angeles calmly told us that there were one and a half thousand people across the world tuned in already and that grew as the performance started and by the end we were streaming live to an audience of over three thousand!”

Artistic director Andy Barrow, who played Macbeth, said: “The response since the broadcast has been tremendous. People have been in touch via social media and email in their droves, telling us that it’s made their lockdown and how they needed a laugh and our performance provided just that.”

The Oddsocks family told the story using a trimmed-down version of the original text, three mobile phones, five laptops, kitchen spatulas for swords, a colander for Macbeth's helmet and dolls and a unicorn slipper for apparitions.

Andy and Elli’s 19-year-old daughter Charlie was roped in to play the roles of McDuff and Banquo and enjoyed the experience so much she says she signing up for the next performance.

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“It really was an experiment to see if we could do it” says director Kevin Kemp of The Streaming Theatre based in L.A. “We used twitch.tv as our streaming platform which is usually used by gamers and has recently been expanding into music but this may well be one of the first Shakespeare plays to have been aired via the platform and that is really exciting, as it may have brought a new audience to Shakespeare.”

Oddsocks artistic director Andy Barrow said: “The response since the broadcast has been tremendous. People have been in touch via social media and email in their droves, telling us that it’s made their lockdown and how they needed a laugh and our performance provided just that.”

You can find out how Macbeth was created by tuning in to a live question and answer session on Friday, May 22, at 7pm. Go to https://thestreamingtheatre.wixsite.com/home/event-details/how-we-made-our-45-min-comedy-macbeth

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