Macbeth (Hipgnosis Theatre)

By Leah

FIVE POINTS OR LESS

man, that lighting is an interesting choice • unevenly acted • not the best introduction to Shakespeare, but you may want to bring your literary buddy

Julian Rozzell, Jr. as Macbeth and (L-R) Rachel Tiemann, Amelia Workman and Bryn Boice as the Weird Sisters in MacBeth. Photo by Pharah Jean-Philippe.

BOTTOM LINE: The acting wasn't hot enough to overcome a deliberately cold production.

One of the bloodiest plays in Shakespeare's canon comes to the Lower East Side with the Hipgnosis Theater Company's production of Macbeth. This incarnation is set in a modern, stark, and urban world - i.e. cargo pants and combat boots, a bare stage, and colorblind casting. An excellent start. This auspicious beginning continues with the appearance of the Three Witches (Rachel Tiemann, Amelia Workman, and Bryn Boice), tightly wrapped in white plastic and gauze, whose collective presence remains wonderfully weird and delightfully disconcerting throughout the play. I respect, admire, and love daring production choices. But y'know what? This play left me really cold, and I think it only partially meant to.

The most interesting choice of the show is arguably the decision to stage it entirely in full light. And not only in full light, but with a good deal of it coming from flourecent strips and bouncing off the scuffed white vynl flooring which marks off the playing space. The concept, according to the press release, was to "propose that, in our urban society, ubiquitous light can be as much a source of terror and nightmare as darkness was in Jacobean England" and, to that end, it was somewhat successful. The monotony of the lighting was enough to drive anyone stark raving mad. Unfortunately, as one is going stark raving mad, it is difficult to pay attention to poor player strutting and fretting his hour on the stage. Furthermore, man, I like Shakespeare, and I still need it broken up by something. Don't get me wrong, the stage pictures were nice and dynamic, but really, the lack of lighting cues made the play feel a lot longer than it should have.

The reason I love bare-bones productions is because they highlight the acting. And let's face it, Macbeth is tough play to get right because the title character is a tough guy to get behind. As the Scottish Thane, Julian Rozzell, Jr. has some genuinely anguished and sympathetic moments, particularly during the soliloquies. In general though, it didn't seem like anyone in the cast was really talking to one another, nor did there seem to be a cohesive acting style. Some actors rushed through lines in rather naturalistic fashion, while others went for more traditional "Shakespearean" acting - that is, borderline declamation - and so there were some scenes when it didn't really feel like the actors were in the same play. The relationship between Mac and Lady Mac (Elizabeth Mirarchi) stands out as an exception to this; their interactions with each other are welcomed moments of genuine connection.

I think a lot of the choices of this production were interesting and commendable, but were meant to highlight acting and chemistry which, with a few exceptions, didn't really pop the night I was there. Go see it with your Bardophile buddy, not with the friend who is shaky on the whole theater experience; you won't be doing him any favors.

(Macbeth runs through April 19th at the Flamboyan Theatre, Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, 107 Suffolk St.. Performances are Wednesday through Sunday at 8pm. The show runs 2 hrs. and 15 min. Tickets are $18, to purchase visit Smarttix or call 212-868-4444. For more show info visit hipgnosistheatre.com.)

Macbeth (Lyceum Theatre)

BOTTOM LINE: Beam me up, Macbeth. A slightly pretentious and self-indulgent interpretation of Shakespeare's classic. Really only for HUGE fans of Patrick Stewart and die-hard Shakespeare fanatics.

All right. I'm going to start this post by saying that I LOVE Shakespeare, Patrick Stewart, and edgy new interpretations of classical work. That being said, I'm going to go out on a limb here and just say it. I didn't like Macbeth.

When I went to see the latest production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, recently transferred from a limited run at BAM to its new home at The Lyceum Theatre, I was expecting a night of mind-blowing, engrossing, extraordinary theatre. It has everything going for it: huge star power, an intriguing story, and enough buzz to fuel a bee hive, but I was sadly very disappointed.

Patrick Stewart of Star Trek: The Next Generation and X-Men fame, tackles the title role of the disgruntled Scotsman in this version of the Bard's classic which was produced at England's Chichester Festival Theatre, before crossing the pond to New York. While Stewart has been a part of nearly every play in Shakespeare's cannon, I'm a little sad to say that, in my opinion his performance in this play was nothing to write home about. The producers are probably banking on Stewart's name to lure people to sit through this three hour tour, but they might be a little unsatisfied.

The fault doesn't lie with Captain Picard. While his performance is a little self indulgent, it's not bad. I just don't think that it's worth the $101 ticket price and maybe was better off at its cozy home in Brooklyn. It's said that Macbeth is a cursed play, since Shakespeare used real witches' incantations in the text of the play. Productions are rarely successful and often riddled with catastrophe, and I think that this version is just a little too big for its britches. The show is set in Stalinist Russia, with little to no explanation or justification for the change in setting. Instead of helping to clarify the actions of the characters in the play, it really only slightly confuses the matter by incorporating a working elevator, Russian folk songs, and rapping witches. That's right, I said rapping witches.

Now I know that I might be in the minority of people who don't go wild over this production, but I'm all right with that. (If you think otherwise, let us know.) I thought there were moments of greatness- among them Kate Fleetwood's Lady Macbeth which was consistently off the charts, and the witches (despite the techno rapping) were pretty darn creepy. But overall, I thought the rest of the performances were all over the map. I appreciate that this production might get a new crowd to experience Shakespeare, but I just wish that it were a little better. I'm proud to say that it's all right if you don't like a production of Shakespeare's work. It doesn't mean that you're not educated or cultured. It just might mean that it wasn't that great.

(MacBeth plays at The Lyceum Theatre, 149 West 45th Street, from now through May 24 2008. Weeks beginning March 31, April 14, April 28, May 12: Tuesday - Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm; Sunday at 3pm. Weeks beginning April 7, April 21, May 5: Tuesday - Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2 and 8pm, Sunday at 3pm. Week beginning May 19: Tuesday - Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm. Ticket Prices: $51.50 - $101.50. Call Telecharge at (212) 239-6200/(800) 432-7250.)