One of the most influential shows in recent New York

indie theater history, Bitch Macbeth has

played to record houses in three of downtown theater's best

known venues, to rave reviews and a huge cult following.

The signature work of DMTheatrics, Bitch Macbeth is the only

off-off-Broadway work whose original papers are preserved

in the prestigious Billy Rose Theater Collection

at the Lincoln Center NY Public Library, its

three productions providing a springboard for dozens of

performers and actors who have become mainstays of the NYC

indie stage.

This cult classic work now forms the basis of an ambitious new

cycle, Triptych.  Telling the multigenerational story of the collapse and

rebirth of a hypersexualized feudal culture, encompassing themes of

revolution, redemption, and ambition, and possessed of a

dizzying scope and scale, Triptych is both everything theater

can be, and like nothing else before it.  Using

performance, language, dance, combat,

multi-media, all types of theater, this epic is

an immersive, intensive, unforgettable

work of immense scale and

remarkable intimacy.

In a candle lit dungeon cathedral, a pair of dominas glean a prophecy from

a whip-scarred penitent's back, setting in motion a campaign

of bloodshed, mayhem, and naked ambition.  Macbeth, brutish and

damaged head of a lower House, and his ruthless Femme, seductive and

ambitious, pillage and slaughter their way to power.  As the weakened and debauched Crown Asbury slips into hedonism and insolvency, his radical young son agitates for revolution, and his haunted daughter suffers visions

of a dreadful future.  Houses fall, kingdoms crumble,

and prophecies come true in ways the domina could have never

envisioned, all against a backdrop of lust, intrigue, horror, and

tragedy.  All Hail Bitch Macbeth.

First devised in 2000, Bitch Macbeth received its first

staging at the Access Theater in lower Manhattan,

and was the first work from DMT and director Frank

Cwiklik to receive industry-wide attention and acclaim.

An almost instant cult classic, the show was rethought

and restaged in 2003 at the Kraine Theater, the historic

99-seat venue that serves as part of the legendary 4th Street

experimental theater district known as Ellen Stewart Way.

Playing to packed houses and strong notices, the show cemented

the reputation of both DMTheatrics and Bitch Macbeth itself.

In 2008, the show was radically reinvisioned

as a partially immersive performance piece.  This final, nearly

definitive version premiered at the Brick Theater, Williamsburg's

pioneering arts venue.  Once again playing to record-breaking

houses, it received its strongest reviews yet, and remains the crowning
work of the DMT repertory.

The 2008 production serves as the template for Triptych.  A series of three plays, designed to take full advantage of the uniquely tactile, immersive experience of live storytelling, each with its own distinct and deliberately unique style and feel, Triptych's shows are meant to work either as three stand-alone evenings of compelling drama, or together as a cohesive, overwhelming epic event.

Using the world, language, and themes of Bitch Macbeth as inspiration, Divine Asbury chronicles the immediate aftermath of the first show's brutal events.   Still suffering from visions and tormented by the loss of her family, the newly anointed Virgin  Crown slowly loses her grip on reality, while the nascent religious movement founded in memory of her brother grows into a revolutionary movement, as a devious, shadowy power player effortlessly seduces both the low and the mighty into challenging the perilous status quo.  A generation then passes before the events of Prime Purity, in which a young boy and girl, marked for greatness and raised on the run, slowly discover their true natures and come to reclaim the broken throne, as a reckless and unstable young princess finds herself thrust into power amidst a court full of con men, psychos, and charlatans, who don't realize their young puppet ruler is already one step ahead of them and plotting their eventual downfall.

Proposed for a 2016 production launch, with performance dates beginning in late 2016/early 2017, proposal imagery and synopses of the two new plays in the cycle can be found by clicking the logos below.  For information on past productions of Bitch Macbeth, including photos and promotional material, see the archives menu at bottom.  For performance/production enquiries or casting info, go to our Contact page.

CLICK LOGOS BELOW TO EXPLORE

CAST for proposal photos:

Macbeth - Adam Swiderski

Prime Asbury - Abby DeMauri

Femme Macbeth - Rocio Mendez

Rbiter - Cedric Jones

Aurora - Ivy Hong

Crown Asbury - Duncan Pflaster

Small Asbury - Jamie Goodnight

Copper - Lauren Hart

Wire - Alison Preece

Crown Water - Robin Friend Stift

Femme Water - Ori Bitter

 Chorus - Ori Bitter, Andy Dispensa, Dianne Kaye, Jessie Krebs, Nathan Reid, Robin Friend Stift, Angie Tennant, Allison Wick

FOOTAGE for background video compiled from 2001 and 2008 productions (see archives below for full cast/production info)