Shakespeare as Played by 11-Year-Old Lord and Lady Macbeths

Double-talking witches, murder most foul, treachery and treason, guilt and madness. Shakespeare’s bloody “Macbeth” may not seem like child’s play, but fifth-graders at Edison Language Academy in Santa Monica would disagree.

Their production of the dark tale, a rather unlikely class fund-raiser in February, so impressed members of the respected Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice that the young actors earned themselves a five-week theatrical run there.

Yep, it’s true: “Macbeth . . . According to the Fifth Grade,” opens this weekend for a run of Sunday matinees only.

It was Pacific Resident Theatre members Nancy Linehan Charles and her husband, Michael Rothhaar, parents of an Edison student and recipients of Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards (she for “The Visit” in 1995; he for this year’s “Ardele”), who volunteered to stage the show.

Why “Macbeth”?

“It’s a perfect children’s story,” said Charles, who wrote the abridged version of the classic for the students. “It has ghosts, witches, kings, nightmares--it’s a perfect Grimms’ fairy tale.”

Charles’ version isn’t quite as grim as the original, though. She left out child-killing and a few other too-problematic elements. She has a storyteller provide a contemporary frame for the action, explaining it in ‘90s language. But the actors, ages 10 and 11, “stick strictly to Shakespeare.”

“We were determined from the beginning that this was not going to look like, oh, aren’t they cute,” Charles said. “It’s been new for us, working with children. Perhaps that’s why we expected so much of them. And they delivered--which is a relief,” she added with a laugh.

“I was certainly nervous going into it, that this would stall on Day 1,” agreed Rothhaar, who directs the show. He was stunned by the students’ enthusiasm.

“You help them understand what they say and why,” he said. “I would translate Shakespeare into modern speech, or I’d help them discover it on their own. Then I worked on the mechanics of performance and speech.”

His Macbeth, Kevin Dugan, 11, who by all accounts delivers a masterful “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” speech, said he doesn’t find it difficult to “act mean, mad and sad. It’s fun.” He does, however, have an opinion about Macbeth’s methods: “I think he could have just waited.”

Tabitha Ross, 11, an intense Lady Macbeth, has discovered unexpected meaning in her role.

“I learned a lot about myself,” she said. “When I’m acting, I sort of forget that I’m Tabitha. And I think of all the different sorts of people I could be, all the different personalities I never realized I had.”

For the Pacific Resident Theatre production, Rothhaar also had to educate his novice actors in theater manners and discipline. And, yes, the cast had to be clued in on “the curse of the Scottish play,” a theatrical tradition. Bad luck follows, it is believed, if the play’s title is uttered in the theater, except in the performance itself. Duly impressed, the Edison students now say, “How’s the ‘M’ play going?’ ” Rothhaar noted with amusement.

That Macbeth broke his finger on the playground during the second week of rehearsal at school is mere coincidence, of course.

Family audiences shouldn’t expect “a grisly afternoon in the theater,” Rothhaar said. “We’re sensitive to the fact that it’s a particularly violent play. And kids get tons of violence poured at them [in films], where it doesn’t seem to cost anybody anything, so we go to great lengths to hammer home the consequences of extreme and misguided actions.”

Murder is done, to be sure, but blood is represented Kabuki-style, with red silk streamers. The climactic sword fight between Macbeth and Macduff is fought with wooden swords; a drummer gives it emphasis. (Charles’ and Rothhaar’s son, Will Rothhaar, 11, a professional actor with a recurring role on the TV series “JAG,” plays Macduff.)

The run at Pacific Resident Theatre is a fund-raiser for Edison, a public school with a Spanish immersion program.

* “Macbeth . . . According to the Fifth Grade,” Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Blvd., Venice, Sundays, 1 p.m. Ends May 17. Adults, $10; children, $5. (213) 660-8587; groups, (310) 301-3971, Ext. 5.

Just So It Doesn’t Rain: A picnic lunch and a lively imagination are the only requirements for Sunday’s unusual musical program for children: UCLA’s Design for Sharing’s “Picnic and Concert With Viklarbo.” Picnic on the lawn outside UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall (bring a lunch or purchase one at the event), then let the varied music of the chamber ensemble Viklarbo--Wendy Prober, piano; Amanda Walker, clarinet; Sebastian Toettcher, cello; and Maria Newman, violin/viola--inspire mind pictures and stories.

The program features “Terpsichore and Her Magical Circus,” with a narrative by Prober and Newman, featuring Terpsichore, the muse of dance, in the role of Circus Master of Ceremonies.

* “Picnic and Concert With Viklarbo,” UCLA, Schoenberg Hall, Westwood, Sunday, picnic, noon; concert, 1 p.m. $7. (310) 825-2101.