Teller's 'Macbeth'

Like most Vegas headliners, the Rio’s Penn & Teller find ways to keep their profile in the public mind through outside projects. Together the duo created a successful Showtime series dedicated to their skepticism. Meanwhile, Penn Jillette is set to appear in the next season of “Dancing With the Stars” later this month.

But it is his silent on-stage partner, Teller, who is doing one of the most original side projects ever attempted by a Vegas headliner. Teller is co-directing a production of "Macbeth," currently running at the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C., through April 12. He also has been blogging about the experience.

The production has received positive attention from the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, all of which note Teller’s use of stage magic and the massive amounts of blood and gore he places at the center of his take on Shakespeare’s shortest and most violent tragedy.

Teller’s love of "Macbeth" (and Shakespeare) goes back to his childhood. “My father knew I was a magic-loving kid who enjoyed spooky stuff. So, he directed me to 'Macbeth,' to Act IV Scene 1, the witches’ cauldron scene, with all of the crazy ingredients. I fell completely in love with that scene and with these completely mad, articulate, androgynous monsters. I’ve been so fond of this play for so many years and talked about it and read it in so many ways and thought about it.”

And Teller’s decades as a magician only increased his affinity for "Macbeth":

“Macbeth is a guy who has trouble telling where the world leaves off and where what is going on in his head starts up. He has a lot of trouble believing his eyes. His hallucinations act this out when he famously sees a dagger in the air. I’ve spent the last 55 years of my life learning about magic; magic is all about that moment when you can’t tell what is and what is not. So, it made sense to me to take all the stage directions that are implied in Shakespeare’s lines and make them literal.” And so when Macbeth hallucinates a dagger, it becomes a visual experience that the audience shares as well. “When Lady Macbeth imagines blood on her hands, she rubs her nightgown, leaving huge red stains.”

But for Teller the line between real and imaginary remains vivid. Even moonlighting in the superstitious world of actors and theater, as in his Vegas show and Showtime series, Teller remained the debunking atheist. Among the most famous legends of Shakespeare performance is the deep-seated belief that there is bad luck associated with saying Macbeth’s title in a theater, and, as a result, actors and directors often refer to the play by euphemisms like "the Scottish play."

Teller was having none of that for his "Macbeth," as well as taking the time to violate any other old theater superstition he could find: “On the night before we opened, I gathered everyone together and got them to go ‘good luck,’ ‘Macbeth’ and whistle in chorus. Another superstition is you must not have a peacock feather backstage. And my good partner Penn sent a bouquet of 50 peacock feathers, and every member of the cast and crew got one.”