Manual Cinema: The 4th Witch

Run Time: 65 minutes

Manual Cinema’s The 4th Witch is a fantastic new tale, inspired by elements of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which a girl escapes war and flees into a dark forest. Told through shadow puppetry, actors in silhouette and live music (without dialogue or narration), The 4th Witch begins on the eve of an invasion of a small town by the local warlord, Macbeth. The girl flees the invading army and escapes into the nearby forest. Orphaned and exiled, she is rescued by a witch, who adopts her as an apprentice. As she becomes more skilled in witchcraft, her grief and rage draw her into a nightmarish quest for vengeance against the warlord who killed her parents: Macbeth.

The 4th Witch, an inversion of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, explores themes of grief, war, generational conflict, and cycles of violence through the collateral damage left behind on the battleground. Manual Cinema, last seen at PEAK Performances for the 2024 production of Frankenstein, is an Emmy Award-winning performance collective, design studio, and film/video production company based in Chicago.

Recommended for ages 12 and up.