Manual Cinema’s “The 4th Witch”

Manual Cinema’s The 4th Witch is a vivid new work inspired by elements of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, following a young girl who escapes an approaching army and disappears into a dark forest. Orphaned and exiled, she is taken in by a witch who becomes both guardian and mentor. As the girl grows in power, so does her resolve to confront the warlord responsible for the violence that reshaped her world. Told entirely without dialogue through shadow puppetry, live silhouettes, and an original score, the production mixes cinematic craft and theatrical invention with striking emotional clarity. The piece examines grief, war, generational conflict, and how cycles of violence endure long after the battlefield is quiet. Through handcrafted imagery and Manual Cinema’s signature visual language, the work reframes Macbeth from the perspective of the unseen and the displaced, illuminating the quieter stories that linger in the margins of myth and history. “a dark work, full of pain and loss, but the darkness lifts” – Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times The 4th Witch premiered June 4–8 2025 at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC and was co-commissioned by Spoleto Festival, CalPerformances, Arts Emerson and Wisconsin Union Theater. Manual Cinema is an Emmy Award-winning performance collective, design studio, and film/video production company founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter. Manual Cinema combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive stories for stage and screen.