Macbeth

Talley Cook

4/22/13

THEA2100H

A Review of //Macbeth//

Though I am not a huge fan of Shakespeare, I had high expectations for this show. The advertising was well done and I heard great things from numerous people. I have to say though, I left feeling underwhelmed. Maybe my expectations were too high, but for the amount of money that went into the show, I was disappointed with much of it. My favorite parts were when the witches were on stage because they looked so cool with the LED sheets, but without the expensive special effects the show was extremely lacking. I must admit I was a biased audience member because my friend Emerald was one of the witches, so of course I loved those parts. However very similar to //Under Construction//, the show seemed to put too much attention on the effects and not enough on the acting. Sometimes all the pageantry of being on a big stage with special effects takes away from the overall quality of the show because the actors can’t focus all of their efforts on their acting. The set design was very well done. The show was able to make quick scene changes without a lot of adjustments. I also really liked that the witches were usually present in the background of most scenes with Macbeth, as though they were controlling and manipulating him. I also thought they cast the play very well. My chief complaint about the show was that the actors needed more focus. The LED sheets and the rest of the set were really the strongest element of the play. It was clear that a lot of thought and effort went into the design. It is hard to visualize some of the scenes in Macbeth with the ghosts and the floating dagger, the LED sheets were a creative way to represent those parts. I’m curious about how they did it in the first production of the show without any technology. The opening scene with the witches behind the LED sheets was really spectacular. It was just very entertaining to watch. Although the rest of the set was much simpler, it served its purpose because I could easily visualize all the different scenes in the show. The moving parts of the stage made it easier to imagine different settings. The lighting was also extremely well done. I was amazed that the same set could look a certain way with the yellow light of the morning, but totally different with the blue tinted lights of the night. The paint seemed to have a sheen that mixed very well with the lights. I also thought they cast this play very well. The scruffy men suited their parts perfectly. I liked that they cast an African American for the role of Macbeth. Even though the part was Scottish and an African American is not what I would have expected for the role, I liked that it modernized it in a way. Almost as though they were expressing that the messages and themes of the play are universal and not limited to Scotland during that time period. The actor who played Macbeth did an excellent job. Of course there were things that he could improve upon, but I thought he did a great job for such a big role. I thought the witches were cast well too. Although it was difficult to see their faces for much of the play, when they were visible they all had very malevolent eyes. Even their voices were creepy. I was actually a little scared during parts. I liked that the witches were in the background for many of the scenes as well. It alluded to how they are always manipulating Macbeth in the background of his life. The actor who played Banquo was my favorite. I had a hard time understanding many of the lines of the show, but he really got me to connect with his character with his acting skills. If it were not for his gestures and his tone of voice while speaking his lines, I would have had trouble understanding what is going on. I was a little confused by the costumes. I liked the LED lights on the witches, but it seemed a little unnecessary everywhere else. I just didn’t understand why all of the actors had random plastic pieces on their costumes. It seemed very incongruous with the show especially since they didn’t all serve a purpose. I kept expecting a scene where all of their outfits would light up or something. Instead, I was just confused about why Lady Macbeth was wearing a neck brace. The witches outfits were great, I just didn’t like the head piece that came up so high. It resembled the hats that nuns wear. Frankly I found it a little offensive for their outfits to so closely resemble a nun. The lights were great, but I think they could have changed the white sheets over them. The acting of the show could have been improved upon a lot. It seemed like there were parts that the actors were unsure of or didn’t know exactly the emotions they needed to convey along with their words. I think part of this is because it is hard to fully comprehend Shakespeare because no one speaks that way anymore. During some of the longer monologues it seemed like they were just reciting and not really speaking their lines with emotion. I also thought it was awkward that the rest of the actors would just casually chat off to the side while one person recited a monologue. They looked as though they were just standing there waiting for Macbeth to finish, it was very unnatural. I think it would have made more sense if they all just froze in time. I definitely enjoyed Macbeth the most out of all the theater productions, not because the show was so well produced but because Macbeth is such a classic story of the perils of envy. When you have a really strong script to work with, the production of the play is much easier. However, the actors should have relied less on the special effects and fame of the play and worked on their individual parts more.