Word: macbeths
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Especially effective is Macbeth's last encounter with the witches. A green-lit trap in the stage is the cauldron in which they make their unholy brew. Simultaneously the vertical circle functions as a top view of the cauldron, changing colors constantly like a kaleidoscope. When "a baboon's blood" is added and Macbeth drinks of the brew--a fine idea--the circle turns red. Then superimposed come the three apparitions, followed by the series of eight kings as a pinwheel. It's a show of virtuosity, but it works...
ALAS, when we come to the two main players, there isn't a hint of virtuosity. If the AST wanted to import someone to play just the single role of Macbeth this summer, why pick Fritz Weaver? Fifteen years ago Weaver attempted Hamlet here, without much success. He hasn't improved in the interim...
...Macbeth happens to be a great military general who speaks consistently the greatest poetry of any character in the canon. In real life we don't often find military, compositional and oratorical genius combined in one man--though we had a recent example, starting with the same three letters, in Douglas MacArthur (the comparison shouldn't be pushed any further, needless to say). Macbeth must start off as an admirable person, sink into murder after murder, and bounce back somewhat at the end, winning our pity as a tragic hero despite his crimes. Not easy, but it can be done...
Weaver gives us a Macbeth that fails to engage interest; we just don't care a rap about the guy. Weaver has a rather unattractive voice, and doesn't use well what he has. He fails to penetrate the sense or the rhythm of his lines. And he has never learned how to breathe properly; so we are subjected constantly to his whiffling, snuffling, and gasping. Here he falls into empty ranting, there he delivers a serious line so that it elicits a laugh. One wishes too that he didn't address his servant twice as "patch," when Shakespeare wrote...
Weaver's final duel with Macduff is much too tame, particularly for those who saw Christopher Plummer's breathtaking swordplay in Cyrano recently. At the end, he pulls out a dagger and seems about to commit suicide when he falls off a parapet; suicide is something no real Macbeth would entertain...