Macbeth Review

Upon entering the Rose theatre to experience WOH Productions’ performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, I was skeptical as to how this particular production might benefit from the seemingly unorthodox decision to situate the play within a technologically modern context. Despite the minimal distractions resulting from the employment of a modern setting and contemporary props, the company’s theatrical judgment in staging Macbeth within the context of a modern day news report was surprisingly effective and offered a unique and culturally pertinent perspective on Shakespeare’s most iconic tragedy.

            WOH’s decision to stage Macbeth within a modern perspective was especially ingenious considering the entire play was performed with only five actors/actresses. By incorporating modern technology such as cell phones, the play could include plot-essential personas without having them physically appear on the stage. A prime example of the company’s efficiency in staging characters can be discerned in the scene in which Macbeth, overcome by his debilitating paranoia, orders the death of his fellow comrade Banquo. Instead of casting three additional actors as the murderers, Macbeth takes advantage of the company’s inclusion of technologically modern props and delivers his sinister instructions via a phone call. The subsequent effect allows the audience to become privy to Macbeth’s treacherous designs without the encumbrance of three additional actors.

            One of the major faults I attributed to the Globe production of Macbeth was the company’s disregard of the temporal correlation between time and place; specifically, the scene in Act One when Lady Macbeth receives Macbeth’s letter revealing his encounter with the weird sisters and the prophetic truths they divulged. Although I was later informed that it was customary for Renaissance plays to simultaneously stage characters across successive scenes, I still experienced a sense of discontinuity after witnessing the letter’s exchange. Contrary to traditional Renaissance staging techniques, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s overlapping presence on stage contradicts Russ McDonald’s affirmation that theatrical performances during the Elizabethan era depended upon visual and verbal codes to indicate any transitions relative to time and location (McDonald 2). In comparison, the Rose production of Macbeth addressed the disparities I associated with the letter scene by directing Macbeth to make use of his phone once again and thereby “text” the contents of his letter to Lady Macbeth. The instantaneous exchange of information as a result of modern technology greatly rectifies the discontinuity of temporal time which I felt was a significant flaw in the Globe’s more traditional production.

            In conjunction with WOH’s dramaturgical decision to produce a modern interpretation of Macbeth, the emphasis on subtle symbolic motifs, specifically those regarding the engenderment of Lady Macbeth, were especially profound and contributed, in my opinion, to the performance’s exceptional success. The most dramatic and intense scene of the Rose production can be credited to the company’s provocative interpretation of the following lines delivered by Lady Macbeth: “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here; and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, stop up th’access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between th’effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, and take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers” (Act I-v 43-51). Rather than simply have Lady Macbeth deliver her potent soliloquy to the audience, the company casts the above mentioned spirits as the three weird sisters and subsequently has them conduct the unsexing of Lady Macbeth on stage. The androgynous insinuations regarding the engenderment of Lady Macbeth becomes one of the major theatrical motifs characterizing WOH’s production and can most readily be attributed to the duel casting of Francesca De Sica as both Lady Macbeth and Banquo. Throughout the performance the company’s theatrical interpretations consistently encourage the idea that the gender of Lady Macbeth is exceptionally subjective and dependent upon her counterpart role as Banquo. Following the uncomfortable scene in which the weird sisters apparently honor Lady Macbeth’s pleas to have her sex removed, her power and influence in orchestrating the assassination plot of King Duncan achieves a palpable apex. When one considers the masculine authority and power ascribed Lady Macbeth following the ritual, the dichotomy and irony of Macbeth’s later statement “I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none” (Act I-vii 47-48) encompasses new significance. This production, at least initially, casts Lady Macbeth as being anamorphous in regards to her gender identity and therefore, Macbeth’s statement is both true and false.

            What is most intriguing is the manner in which the company utilizes De Sica’s dual role to contribute to the ambiguous gender motif. As a result of her being staged as both Lady Macbeth and Banquo, the duality of her sexual identity is visibly portrayed and subsequently, when Macbeth orders the death of her male counterpart Banquo, the audience begins to observe the inevitable decline of Lady Macbeth’s female gender; the fate of both characters and their respective genders are intrinsically interrelated. The company seemingly acknowledges this connection and at times, their specific dramaturgical judgments directly refer to the duality of De Sica’s roles. Most notably is the banquet scene in which Macbeth is subjected to the haunting spectacle of Banquo’s ghost: “Ere human statute purged the gentle weal; ay, and since too, murders have been perform’d too terrible for the ear: the time has been, that, when the brains were out, the man would die, and there an end; but now they rise again, with twenty mortal murders on their crowns” (Act III-iv 78-83). Rather than incorporating addition special effects to simulate Banquo’s ghost at the banquet, the company once again references the ambiguity of Lady Macbeth/Banquo by demonstrating the extent of Macbeth’s increasing derangement as he “mistakes” Lady Macbeth for the murdered Banquo.