Macbeth
William Shakespeare
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| Danforth Comins & Any Kim Waschke |
How much do we actually control our own choices and fates in
the decisions we believe we are making independently, or how much do we become
the puppets of others’ suggestions they have purposely implanted within us to
lead us in directions they desire? In
the current Oregon Shakespeare Festival production of Macbeth, my impression is that Director José Luis Valenzuela
implores us to examine the influencers of our daily choices in life – messages
that we may receive from sources unexpected but that take hold of our psyche
and drive us do things that we otherwise would probably never have
considered. In our world, the
double-double-toil-and-trouble “witches” we encounter might be the constant
bombardment of talking heads’ opinions on TV, the peppering of ads and supposed
news items among our Facebook messages, or simply the popular trends we
perceive we must follow in order to be liked and accepted.
In the world of the Macbeths as created by this director’s
choices, ever-present weird sisters watch over the diabolical unfolding of a
king’s murder by the usurping Macbeths, of more murders by them to try and
retain their illegitimate power, and finally of their own much-deserved
demises. Throughout, it appears that the
Macbeths are in fact under a spell, to the point of almost hypnotized, as they
go from one evil deed to the next. And
as they and the courtly others around them appear in a mixture of modern dress
(trench coats, cocktail dresses, frayed jeans) and of the robed and armored dress
we more associate with the Scottish king’s actual era (costumes designed by
Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko), the message is more than clear that José Luis
Valenzuela wants us to see the messages of this Macbeth as those that are of today and not just of some long ago,
mostly mythical era.
With that powerful, seemed intention of this production so
noted, some aspects of this Macbeth
do not always measure up to past productions I have seen, either here in
Ashland or on other stages. Part of that
has to do with the uneven performances of the Macbeths themselves. In the story’s early stages, Danforth Comins’
Macbeth is clearly the soldier’s soldier in his demeanor, his delivery of
lines, and overall low-key approach. There
is nothing suggesting royalty, which is in itself a powerful way to meet this
Macbeth. When he is near his Lady
Macbeth (Amy Kim Waschke), there is no doubt the two are clearly passionately
in love, with a returning soldier’s lust and a wife’s desire born of his
absence.
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| Danforth Comins & Any Kim Waschke |
However, as he relates the weird sisters’ predictions to his
wife, as they plot their responses, and even as they conduct the initial murder
of the visiting Duncan, too often both Macbeths continue to deliver lines in
almost monotone – with little variation, drive, ambition, or even evil
intent. Missing from Lady Macbeth, for
example, is the overly ambitious, convincing push that sends her husband off to
his murderous act. Even after the
initial murder, emotions of the two seem muted and actions feigned. With the three witches watching on the
sidelines and often continually moving their arms and hands around them, how
else are we to interpret but that the Macbeths are actually not that much in
control of what they are doing but are simply following through the motions set
out for them by other powers that be? At
times, it seems that their joint and individual too-tempered, too perfuntory
delivery of lines come during moments especially crying for more believability of
intense emotions felt – be they expressions of murderous satisfaction; of
panicked terror of deed just done; or of bloody lust for further acts to secure
their just-found royalty.
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| Amy Kim Washke |
Fortunately, as the bloody deeds mount and as madness sets
in for both Macbeths, each actor finds ways ever increasingly to leave an
impression more lasting on us as audience.
King Macbeth’s crazed sighting of Banquo’s ghost during a dinner party,
Lady Macbeth’s hands that cannot be washed of the blood she keeps seeing, and Macbeth’s
“out, out, brief candle” soliloquy near the end of his reign and life are all
performed with emotional fears and feelings that we can finally actually see,
taste, and feel. It is in those moments,
however, that the play’s prior scenes of the Macbeths become even more lacking
– scenes delivered without enough conviction, nuance, and blood-thirsty drive.
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| The Cast |
The weird sisters themselves (Robin Goodrin Nordli, Miriam A
Laube, and Erica Sullivan) – for all their ghastly appearances and
other-worldly behaviors – are too often a distraction of what is happening
around them. Because they are usually
either somewhere on stage providing their own reactions like a kind of Greek
Chorus through vivid facial expressions, nonverbal communication and looks
among themselves, and body movements, I found myself often drawn to them and
away from the interactions of the Macbeths or of others. Their oft-presence in metal cage-like structures
that move from scene to scene around the outdoor Elizabethan stage is difficult
not to be a prime focus of one’s attention, even when much more important
events are occurring center stage.
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| Danforth Comins & Al Espinosa with the Weird Sisters |
Whether alive as he skeptically listens with Macbeth to the
witch’s initial predictions – one of which involves him and his progeny – or
returning from the dead as an unwelcome ghost at the Macbeth’s dinner table, Al
Espinosa excels as Banquo with a presence distinctly defined in tones, words,
and physical stance. Likewise, both Lady
Macduff (Michele Mais) and Macduff (Chris Butler) leave us almost breathless in
their separate scenes of grief – hers first of being seemingly abandoned by her
husband before watching her son murdered in front of her eyes and his on
hearing of the murders of his wife and children. Chris Butler is particularly stunning in both
his paused gasps of “All my pretty ones?” and his stunned silence of disbelief
before his enraged promise of “front to front bring thou this fiend of Scotland
and myself within my sword’s length of him.”
Michele Mais is also a commanding, evil Hecate as she towers in her
golden crown of the underworld as the queen of the witches, making clear her
intentions to ensure Macbeth has a false confidence that will seal his own
mortal fate.
In a lighter note, Rex Young not only plays almost like a
modern CEO the attractive, but ill-fated King Duncan, but he is also hilariously
wonderful as a Porter who uses a thundering knock, knock, knock at the gate as
a chance to show his comic genius. As he
ventures up to bemused audience members, he welcomes first one to the household
an equivocator as one ”who committed treason enough for God’s sake” and then another
as an English tailor “come hither for stealing out a French hose.” The selected patrons as well as the rest of us
seem thoroughly to enjoy Mr. Young’s clowning and Shakespeare’s trademark of
including comic reliefs in tragedies and histories otherwise full of blood and
death.
For the Macbeth uninitiated,
there is much to be garnered and appreciated from this large, multi-leveled OSF
production. For those of us who have
seen multiple Macbeth’s, the
director’s choices are certainly thought-provoking if not always totally
satisfying. While the key roles of the
Macbeths may not in this case measure up to those we may have seen previously,
there are enough moments of their madness as well as noteworthy performances by
those they murder (or who will eventually lead Macbeth to his final doom) that
all is not lost in witnessing yet one more time Shakespeare’s flow of much
blood for the sake of having and retaining power.
Rating: 3 E
Macbeth continues
through October 11, 2019 in
the Allen Elizabethan Theatre at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Tickets
are available at www.osfashland.org.
Photos
by Jenny Graham
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