Manfred Follow-Up: An Interview with Michael Barakiva (director, Red Bull Theatre, NYC)

In this interview, Michael Barakiva meditates on the decisions behind the staged reading of Lord Byron’s Manfred. After reflecting on how gender roles were used to inform distinctions between natural and supernatural worlds, Barakiva closes with advice for schools and theaters interested in producing their own version of Byron’s play. 

1.) Moments of climax in Manfred frequently involve supernatural occurrences; particularly the resurrection of Astarte in Act II, Scene III and Manfred’s death at the conclusion of the play in Act III, Scene IV. How did you bring to life these moments of action and supernatural occurrence within the comparatively still setting of a staged reading? If you were to stage some of the more supernatural scenes, how/would you use c21st/c19th resources to do so? Why?

The least interesting thing in theatre are those "special" special FX - sparks and strobes and smoke and fog.  We realize them as what they are - sleight of hand, and so there's nothing supernatural about them.  I would start from a place of music - music is the key to the subconscious, and I would have a composer design a motif for supernatural character and/or track.  I'd also ask: what is the metaphor, what is the hierarchy, what is the character - the same questions you'd use with any characters.  How is the Witch of the Alps different than the shade of Astarte?  The play returns to the refrain: the magics he uses to conjure the spirits are dark, evil, black - the production would need to make a decision early on if this is truth, or just other characters' perception.  And of course - what is the cost of the magic on Manfred?  Maybe he ages dramatically with each conjuring.  Maybe he needs to use his own blood in the ceremony.  The one thing we know about magic is that it costs. 

2.) It would seem that the benefit of doing a staged reading is that multiple actors give voice to the range of parts in the drama. How did the addition of various voices alter or enhance aspects of Byron’s play?

Unlike many plays, this is really a play that resits double-casting.  It would be expensive to produce, but it really does want multiple voices. 

3.) What was your reasoning behind casting all of the spirits and Arimanes as women? Did you feel like this brought out some of the gender issues which underlie the written text?

Mostly, I wanted to differentiate between the material world and the supernatural world as clearly as possible, and in a staged reading format, there aren't many ways to do that.  Also, the truth is: at this point in our country and this industry's history, we simply have to ask ourselves how are we going to continue doing plays written in the last two thousand years, when they so strongly favor male casts.  70% of audiences, nation-wide, are women.  I work at a theatre, where over 80% of my board is women.  We have to be serving our consumers.

4.) What advice do you have for others interested in producing Manfred, either for the professional, university, or community theater, the classroom, and/or for film?

One of the things that made our reading so successful is that we leaned into Byron's irony for comedic effect.  Byron wrote a play about some intense dude who's dark romantic past with a woman obsesses him, shortly after he himself fled England in self-exile because of his own obsession with a dark romantic situation.  It would be like if Bill Clinton wrote a movie about a President who has an affair with an intern shortly after the Lewinski case blew up.  It's self-referential, it's meta, and it's funny.  Unlocking the humor is key.