A dagger to the heart: Macbeth postponed after Covid cases in cast

The king's court from the Kerikeri Theatre Company production of Macbeth. Photo / Supplied

Shakespeare’s bloodiest and most famous play has become the centre of Northland’s first significant Omicron outbreak.

Kerikeri Theatre Company has been forced to postpone its upcoming season of Macbeth just over a week from opening night after 11 people — 10 cast members and one family member — tested positive for Covid-19.

That number is expected to increase in the coming days.

One actor was admitted to hospital but discharged the following day, while a second was admitted today [FEB 2] with breathing difficulties.

All others are isolating at home and are expected to recover. All are understood to have the Omicron variant.

It is believed the virus was contracted by an actor's family member when he attended the SoundSplash music festival in Hamilton last month. It then spread to the actor and some of the cast.

John Oszajca as Macbeth in the Omicron-hit production by Kerikeri Theatre Company. Photo / Supplied

John Oszajca, who plays Macbeth and is also the play's co-producer, is among those isolating with the virus.

Rehearsals were halted immediately and all cast members were tested when they received news of the positive case, he said.

The entire cast, except children who had only recently become eligible, were at least double vaxxed.

Oszajca cautioned against dismissing Omicron as a ''mild'' illness.

''I'm on day three and I think I'm past the worst of it but I'm not in a good place. I've never had a life-threatening illness so I have nothing to compare it to, but it's a doozy. It's not to be taken lightly.''

Oszajca said he had been impressed by how seriously the theatre company had taken the outbreak and how quickly they had acted.

''Everyone is very conscious of containing the risk to anyone else.''

The cast had been working so hard on the play in recent weeks that most had little time to do anything else, minimising their exposure to others.

A trio of witches cook up a fateful prophecy for Macbeth. Photo / Supplied

Oszajca said the company was still committed to staging the play, but the cast would have to be fully recovered and the timing would have to be safe for the community.

It was too early to give new dates.

''But 100 per cent the show will go on. We've worked too hard for too long.''

Any tickets would be honoured when new dates were set but refunds would be given to those who wanted their money back.

He hoped people would continue to support the arts and keep their tickets until new dates were announced.

The theatre company had done the ticketing themselves which meant they were able to contact ticket holders directly.

Is this a dagger which I see before me? John Oszajca as Macbeth in the Omicron-hit production by Kerikeri Theatre Company. Photo / Supplied

The play was to have been staged on February 10-19 at Kainui Vineyard, just north of Kerikeri.

It would have been staged under the Covid red traffic light setting by limiting the audience to 100 people per show and requiring vaccine passes, masks and social distancing at the outdoor venue.

The entire season sold out several days ago.

Actors have for centuries harboured superstitions the Shakespearean tragedy is cursed. Some even refuse to say its name, instead referring to it as ''the Scottish play''.

Oszajca said he was not superstitious but all the same there had been some nervousness about staging the play during a pandemic.

It was ironic that the first place Omicron had hit hard in the Far North, where Covid was still scarce, was in the cast of Macbeth.

Staging any kind of arts event was challenging, costly and a financial risk — even without the threat of a virus hanging over the production, much like the ghost of the murdered Banquo haunted Macbeth during the banquet scene.

''But we had two options. One was to do nothing and let the arts die for two years, or we try to stage a production in a smart, safe way. We hope people understand that and appreciate we are trying to bring the arts to the community in a challenging time.''

Oszajca, a US-born singer-songwriter and actor, was to have starred alongside Isa Hackett, who has had leading roles in Kerikeri theatre productions since 2017.

Oszajca and Hackett also had the lead roles in last year's acclaimed The Mother****** with the Hat at Kerikeri's Black Box Theatre.

Macbeth would have been Kerikeri Theatre Company's second summer Shakespeare production after A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2019.

After a Covid-enforced break the amateur theatre group returned to the stage in July last year with the hugely successful Sound of Music.

John Oszajca and Isa Hackett have the leading roles in Kerikeri Theatre Company's postponed production of Macbeth. Photo / Supplied

SoundSplash, where the outbreak is thought to have originated, was attended by about 8000 people at Hamilton's Mystery Creek from January 21-23.

Anyone who visited the music festival was urged to self-monitor for symptoms until February 2 and get a test if any appeared.

By coincidence, Northland Youth Theatre is also staging Macbeth. The two productions are not connected. The youth theatre version is being performed nightly until Friday [FEB 4] at Whangārei's Quarry Gardens.

The Northland District Health Board reported 11 new Covid-19 cases to midnight Tuesday, of which nine were directly linked to the Kerikeri cluster.

One case was in Whangārei, a household contact of a known case and already in isolation, while the remaining case was at Ngāwhā Prison and was so far unlinked. The total number of active cases in Northland was 31.

Another two cases in Kerikeri's Macbeth cluster as of Wednesday afternoon had yet to be included in the official figures.

■ In a curious historical parallel, Shakespeare may have written Macbeth while he was isolating due to an outbreak of bubonic plague in the early 1600s. One speech in particular, by the Scottish noble Ross, is thought to refer to the plague: The dead man's knell/Is there scarce asked for who, and good men's lives/Expire before the flowers in their caps/Dying or ere they sicken. In modern English that can be expressed as: When the funeral bells ring, people no longer ask who died. Good men die before the flowers in their caps wilt. They die before they even fall sick.

Macbeth cluster connected to supermarket staffer

By Julia Czerwonatis

The Advocate understands one of the cases linked to the Macbeth cluster is a staff member at New World Kerikeri, which has previously been listed as a location of interest.

While Foodstuffs has neither confirmed nor denied the information, they advised that "any team members who return a positive Covid-19 result are stood down".

"Our stores are currently working to traffic light system, red, which means the store has been cleaned multiple times throughout the day, has increased sanitation procedures, we're all keeping a 1.5m physical distance, there's mask-wearing for customers (unless exempt), and all our team members wear masks while they're working," Emma Wooster, corporate affairs manager Foodstuffs NZ, said.

Wooster asked shoppers to continue to shop normally and to stay home if they were feeling unwell.

New World Kerikeri was a location of interest on Saturday, January 22, 4.45pm-6.05pm; Wednesday, January 26, 12pm-10pm; and Saturday, January 29, 12.58pm-1.15pm.

Other new Kerikeri locations are the Rusty Tractor Café, Monday, January 31, 9.15am-9.25am; and Rebel Sport Kerikeri, Friday, January 28, 11.11am-12pm.