Word: banquo
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Hays is not afraid to keep many of his light levels low, which is right since so much of the play takes place either at night or under dark clouds. Macbeth's hallucinatory ghosts at the banquet are effected entirely by lighting: this is also a wise decision, for Banquo (and then Duncan?) should no more walk in and sit down at the table here than should an actual dagger be lowered from the ceiling in an earlier scene...
Henderson Forsythe is an adequate Banquo, though a little colorless for a man who is supposed to be Macbeth's honorable rival. As Macduff, Roy Poole has a slight vocal problem; but he has a noble manner, and rises to great heights in the moving scene in which he is informed of the slaughter of his family. Duncan is a weak old king, but not so weak as Pat Malone makes him. Barry Macollum is a deeply affecting Physician. William Myers' Lennox needs to smooth out his jerkv delivery...
...Reiss Merin, Mary Perrine, and Patricia O'Grady make a really spine-chilling trio of Weird Sisters, though someone slipped up in failing to provide them with the beards that Banquo calls attention to. All three of their scenes are most ingeniously and effectively staged...
...barracks life is another matter. He is as full of guts, and as hard to take, as a haggis. He sows as much terror among his subalterns as he ever did among the enemy, and runs his mess on lines calculated to make dinner with the Macbeths and Banquo's ghost seem like afternoon tea. And because he had been a ranker who had risen from the gutters of Glasgow, he is a figure of awe and almost superstitious regard to the kilted men who swill their usquebaugh and sweat to master pibrochs (variations on bagpipe tunes...
...witches, played by two men and a women, howl and gesticulate eerily over a gigantic cauldron, but their intriguing dramatic effect never quite inspires awe. As a whole, however, the staging is excellent. Banquo's ghost and Macbeth's horrified reaction to it is brilliant, as is the convergence of enemies on stage around the final duel with MacDuff. The actors played well despite an audience that laughed at murder and sneezed at terror. The set, a few bold pillars of rock and occasional draperies, is combined with splendid lighting to provide a strong yet quickly flexible background for this...