Word: macbeths
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...immediate reaction to seeing such a performance would normally be to assume that the lead actor is simply incompetent, and doesn't "understand" that Macbeth is supposed to make you unhappy instead of amusing you. The problem is that this interpretation doesn't jive with the other facts of the production. Macbeth's director, Monidca Henderson '99, and two of its producers--Nick Saunders '99 and Sam Speedie '99--are all theater veterans with several successful Shakespearean productions behind them. One can hardly imagine that they would have produced a Mainstage play--especially one whose other elements are so rich...
...this whiny near-hysteria of Macbeth's conscious effort on somebody's part, then? Have we been handed somebody's idea of a deliberate re-reading of the character--a postmodern comedy, perhaps, along the lines of a Tom Stoppard play? If this is the idea, it doesn't seem to be working. The rest of the production interprets the text at face value; as a result, the bizarre behavior of Colapinto's Macbeth gradually renders its audience unsure whether any given line or scene is meant to be interpreted as straight drama or as comedy. The audience starts...
Consider, for example, Scene IV.ii, in which we meet Macduff's wife and son for the first time, watch them engage in a tender family scene--and then are forced to watch in horror as they are murdered by Macbeth's soldiers. In this production, the pantomime of a soldier stabbing the child (played by Aaron Goldberg '01), his cry of "He has killed me, mother!" and his immediate collapse into lifelessness was greeted by the audience with a burst of laughter...
...difficult to believe that this is the reaction that the play's producers wanted to provoke. The problem is that whatever the reason behind Colapinto's self-centered, petulant rendition of Macbeth--be it poor judgement, a deliberate attempt at experimentation, or sheer incompetence--it undermines the drama and terror essential to the play. By subverting Macbeth's atmosphere of tragedy, Colapinto's performance ultimately prevents the production from generating the fear and explosive emotion which the play is intended to evovoke. To take the Aristotelian approach, it denies us the catharsis of tragedy. To use layman's terms...
...cast ranges from competent to excellent: Christina Voros '99 is a standout as the doomed Banquo, combining the dignity of a soldier and officer with a serious, perceptive humanity that makes one mourn her character's death. Emily Bishop '99 holds her own in the linchpin role of Lady Macbeth. While this particular production subordinates Lady Macbeth to Macbeth himself, Bishop does a good job of showing us the ambition and the ruthlessness of her character; her increasingly strained expression in the banquet scene of III.iv is simultaneously funny and painful to behold. And her sleepwalking scene...