Come Like Shadows

Anne Hutchings is a teacher-librarian in Ajax, Ontario.

Kincardine O’Neil, named for the village in Scotland where Macbeth was
killed, wants to be an actress. To give her a taste of the reality of
life in the theatre, her mother arranges for her to spend her summer
vacation working as an assistant to an old school friend, now a famous
director at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival. This summer’s
offering turns out to be none other than Macbeth, a play that is said to
be cursed. This production, with its deaths, accidents, and fire,
certainly lives up to the play’s reputation. The keys to the disasters
are an antique mirror Kinny purchases as a prop and three ancient
witches who, because of their involvement with the real Macbeth, are
linked to the play and the mirror.

In Come Like Shadows, Katz provides a well-researched and authentic
behind-the-scenes view of the Stratford Festival. Her Macbeth is not the
ambitious, ruthless tyrant of Shakespeare’s story, but rather an
“honourable man and a good king.” Told alternately by Kinny, a
member of the company, the witches, and Macbeth himself, the story is
complicated and sometimes downright confusing. The inclusion of a
French- versus English-Canadian subplot adds to the complexity.

Recommended for more able readers in Grades 8 and up, particularly
those interested in theatre and/or Shakespeare.