Photograph of Jack Carter (Macbeth), Kenneth Renwick (Second Murderer) and George Nixon (First Murderer) in the Federal Theatre Project production of Macbeth at the Lafayette Theatre, Harlem. Library of CongressOn the nightof April 14, 1936, traffic on Seventh Avenue near 131st Street in New York Citys Harlem neighborhood was at a virtual standstill, the roads jammed for ten blocks. The sort of throngs youd expect for a generational prize fightall of them hoping to get a ticket to the most sensational show in town, a curious adaptation of Macbeth, directed by a dramaturgical wunderkind named Orson Welles under the aegis of the Federal Theater Project, a New Deal program designed to help support the arts.It was an era of artistic and political daring, led by the luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, and Welles, then just 20 and already a respected interpreter of Shakespeare, was debuting one of the boldest productions in the history of American theater. Welles adapted Shakespeares text himself, significantly revising details, moving the setting from Scotland to Haiti and featuring an all-Black cast. In his staging, Welles also swapped medieval witchcraft for voodoo ritualshence the productions nickname, Voodoo Macbeth.Black audiences initially feared that, in the hands of a white director, the production might make a mockery of Black cultural practices. Such concerns evaporated on that buzzy April night in 1936 at the Lafayette Theater. By all metrics, Voodoo Macbeth was a smash, as critics fawned over the performances, the eye-popping costuming (above) and the voodoo drumming. As one reviewer wrote of a particularly hypnotic moment in the drumming: If it doesnt make you feel the creeps, you are unimaginative indeed.A sparkle always came to Welles eye whenever he thought back on the production. By all odds my great success in my life was that play, he recalled in a 1982 BBC interview. Everybody who was anybody in the Black or white world was there. And when the play ended there were so many curtain calls that finally they left the curtain open, and the audience came up on the stage to congratulate the actors.Debuting amid Jim Crow, Voodoo Macbeth not only provided critical work to Black New Yorkers amid the Great Depression150 cast members were involvedbut also elevated Black actors, in New York and beyond: After finishing its sold-out ten-week run at the Lafayette, the production toured cities from Dallas to Indianapolis to Syracuse. At a time of deep racial prejudice, Welles Voodoo Macbeth granted Black Americans some semblance of equalityand on the stage, it allowed them to bewitch the world.Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $19.99This article is a selection from the March 2025 issue of Smithsonian magazineGet the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.Filed Under: African American History, Great Depression, New York City, Theater, William Shakespeare