| . | 04/16/2009
Macbeth
By: Deirdre Donovan
Julian Rozzell, Jr. as Macbeth, Bryn Boice, Amelia Workman and
Rachel Tiemann as the Weird Sisters, and Richard Ugino as Banquo
Photo courtesy of Pharah Jean-Philippe
Light is the new dark in the Hipgnosis Theater Company’s inventive staging of Macbeth. John Castro, the director, has conceived the striking physical production staged on a stark white vinyl floor, complete with fluorescent white strips, a white witches’ nest at ceiling level, and white tyvek costumes. His cast is competent, and the Shakespearean language never becomes decimated during the 2 hour plus show at the Clemente Soto Velez Center. But what’s missing here is the requisite chemistry between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. In short, the Macbeths appear to be on separate planets, light years apart from each other’s crippled mental state.
The nominal Macbeth of the evening is Julian Rozzell, a young actor who was most recently seen in Stanford University's Passing Strange. Rozzell already has a number of juicy Shakespearean roles (Othello at the Texas Globe, Aaron in Titus Andronicus at the Milwaukee Shakespeare) under his belt, and his comfort level with the Bard’s language is evident. Here he attempts to play the tragically ambitious Scotsman, but hits the mark only in his monologues and scenes in Act 2. Tall and sinewy, Rozzell’s frame suggests that Macbeth is an aesthete with an inner life and moral compass. His Macbeth is good, brave, and imaginative to a fault. But he’s not the killing machine, nor the one hundred percent bloody villain we expect.
After Lady Macbeth’s (Elizabeth Mirarchi) death by suicide, we do have a chance to see Rozzell’s Macbeth get going. True, it’s a bit late for him to gain real ferocity, but he proves a far more complex villain once his collaborating—and ruthless--spouse exits the story. We listen to his treadmill language in the famous speech “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow”. . . and the tragedy becomes incredibly clear. Macbeth is, as scholar Marjorie Garber cited, “a Sisyphus figure,” tragically doomed to rolling his stone to the top of the hill, only to have it roll back down to hell.
To be sure, a few supporting actors in the production shine. Rachel Tiemann (First Witch), Bryn Boice (Second Witch), Amelia Workman (Third Witch) play the Three Witches, and look properly evil in their clinically white gowns and caps. Whereas the costumes call to mind the nurse figures in last season’s Macbeth (starring Patrick Stewart) on Broadway, this trio of actors succeeds in making the clinical atmosphere their own. Another notable performance is turned in by John Kelly Jones, playing Duncan. He has all the bread-and-butter qualities of good acting: vocal, facial, and physical expressiveness and unmistakable stage presence. His doubling as the Murderer, Old Man, and Doctor ensures that his talent doesn’t go to waste in the show.
The evening is not without its merits. The well-known story of Macbeth is faithfully retraced here: It starts out with the Three Witches and their supernatural predictions for both the military hero Macbeth (He’ll one day be King of Scotland!) and the nobleman Banquo (His sons will be kings!). The doomed and unlucky path of Macbeth, however, is greatly exacerbated by his wife, who suggests that Macbeth kill the sleeping King Duncan in their castle. The rest is a marriage of history and Shakespeare’s haunting imagination.
Krista Thomas-Scott, the costume and props designer has done a terrific job with the witch’s costumes, the glossy white vinyl flooring, and the white fluorescent lights. It’s impossible to shut out the stark white tone of this barren urban scene, ice-berg deep and terrifying. Ambition and sleeplessness are the two-fold theme of this production. And those words of Macbeth following Duncan’s murder—“Sleep no more”— take on an especially ominous sound and bleak coloring.
Historically, Shakespeare’s company, the King’s Men, staged Macbeth in broad daylight. And it curiously makes this unconventional fully-lit production right “in line” with theater in Jacobean England. The current staging may upend our cultural instincts for light and dark. But this 180 degree symbolic turn onstage surely makes us look at Macbeth closer.
All in all, this Macbeth is innovative, and thought-provoking. If you insist on having the Macbeths portrayed as red-hot lovers, then you might feel disappointed with this production. But if you don’t mind a cool chemistry between the Macbeths, then this production passes muster.
Hipgnosis Theatre Company at Clemente Soto Velez Center (Flamboyan Theatre) located at 107 Suffolk Street.
Performances are Wednesdays through Sundays at 8pm with a matinee performance on Saturday 4/18 at 3pm.
Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at http://www.SmartTix.com or by calling 212-868-4444.
For more information visit http://www.Hipgnosis.org
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