“I absolutely wanted to do this again,” Shaw says. “I feel very privileged to be part of such a pivotal moment in the story.”

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Now, if you haven’t seen Synetic’s wordless version of the play, you may be thinking, “Rape? What rape?” And your recollections of reading Macbeth would be correct. Shakespeare’s stage directions indicate that Macduff’s young son is stabbed onstage, while the murderers sent by the Macbeths pursue Lady Macduff into the wings. Macduff hears of the violence secondhand.

In choosing to show the murders onstage, and assume that the hit men Macbeth hired would also stoop to rape, Synetic gives Macduff clear motivation to avenge the murders, and end the cycle of violence perpetrated by the power-hungry title couple.

“Now everybody understands what happens, and see how it affects the characters,” Shaw says. “That’s the point of the play that catapults the story and drives the play.”

Salma Shaw in Synetic's 'Macbeth': "At the end of scene, when they are doing the rape and murder choreography, they are actually not touching me, but I think for the audience, that is enough." (Photo: Graeme B. Shaw)

She mentions that Misha Ryjik and Maya Brettel, the children playing her son and daughter, were cast because they are older (both 13) than they look (9 or 10). The theater clearly advertizes the show for ages 14 and up, and anyone planning to see one of the final shows running this weekend should know Macbeth contains graphic pantomime.

“When we were developing the scene, we talked about how much groping, how much touching did we want there to be, and there’s actually very little,” Shaw says. “It’s a deconstructed rape. At the end of scene, when they are doing the rape and murder choreography, they are actually not touching me, but I think for the audience, that is enough.”

Shaw and her onstage children are the only characters in the show dressed in vibrant colors. That’s intentional, she says. They represent innocence, and the world outside a corrupt, militaristic society. They return a few scenes later to haunt Macbeth. Each holds a candle, and as Konstantine Lortkipanidze’s music quietly pulses, the murderous king tries in vain to blow out their flames. It’s the most silent moment in the show. And when Macduff rallies the troops to storm Macbeth’s castle, everyone in the audience understands why.

“At the end of the day, people understand pain and suffering, but they also understand loss, and grief,” Shaw says. “And that’s what that scene is about. It’s about loss, and trying to make sense out of, ‘How could somebody do things?’ … [Lady Macduff and the children] illuminates the goodness in the world, and the goodness gets snuffed out.”