Word: macbeths
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...well to the different locations called for in the play. Most of the Brandeis stage is unused, since the set is placed so far forward. The playing area is unduly shallow and so steeply raked that it must be difficult to move about on. The cast must, to use Macbeth's words, feel "cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd." Perhaps the Lake Forest stage is unusually small; but if so, some adjustment ought to have been made here by pushing the set back or even chucking it entirely in favor of a bare stage with movable furniture and props...
Part of the awe Macbeth inspires in a playgoer is that of watching a voracious bird of prey. Sworn in honor to be a trusted host to Duncan, the King, Macbeth swoops on his sleeping sovereign and murders him. As the new King, he wheels on his best friend, Banquo. When a mettlesome foe, Macduff, threatens him, Macbeth's talons are unsheathed to mortally savage Macduff s wife and her entire brood. Finally, all Scotland falls bleeding prey to his gashing beak...
...figure of terror Macbeth surely is, but a figure of pity never. On or off the stage, worldly men of vaulting ambition rarely evoke pity. And Macbeth is the worldliest of Shakespeare's tragic heroes. He is too much the pragmatist ever to have divided up his kingdom as Lear does, or fall prey to jealousy or doubt as do Othello and Hamlet. While Fate does bring him low, Macbeth's power ploys are realistic assessments of how to seize and hold the crown. But he is afflicted by conscience of a kind. Just prior to killing...
...Lady Macbeth sees that such thoughts will sap her husband's resolution. Maggie Smith is as cool as a cobra and just as wily in the role. She drips venom on his slumbering courage but only to rouse his unsleeping lust for power. It is a masterly performance of unswerving precision. Her sleepwalking scene is chillingly cataleptic. It is a performance that will be treasured by audiences long after the Festival is dismantled...
Initially, Douglas Rain's Macbeth lacks something of the seasoned field soldier's habit of command. When he looks down at his bloodied hands, he resembles an apprehensive boy caught with spilled jam. However, he grows in authority as his kingship dwindles and seems most regal when his deeds are most evil. The cast does good ensemble work, and in the role of Macduff, Stephen Russell displays a riveting stillness of presence and a limpid delivery of the Shakespearean line that mark him for further distinction...