Review: MACBETH at Actors Theater Of Louisville

Andrew Garman and Jessica Frances Dukes in Macbeth. Photo by Bill Brymer.

Macbeth

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Les Waters

Review by Taylor Clemons

Entire contents copyright © 2016 by Taylor Clemons. All rights reserved.

Walking into the Pamela Brown theater, I knew this would be a new take on Macbeth that few were ready for. Set in an intentionally vague space, the audience gets to decide for ourselves what it might represent. Initially we see a grey stage, filled with clutter. Scattered chairs and worn out furniture all around. We then see three sets of sliding doors, and an overhead light, reminiscent of the headache inducing office fixtures that we are all too familiar with. Given this ambiguous setting, the audience is given a blank palette to interpret the show on their own.

As Macbeth is a very well known property, I will skip the plot and get right to performances. For me personally, this is Jessica Fances Dukes world, and we're all living in it. From her first entrance, she commands the stage with vast power and charisma, and we as the audience are treated to a wonderfully crafted path to Lady Macbeth's descent into madness. She is given a particularly juicy moment at the end of the first act. I don't want to spoil it for you, but with no worlds at all, Jessica's actions bring an entire audience to The Edge of their seats and end's the act with rapturous applause. Andrew Garman as our title character is every bit her worthy equal. He plays the seemingly put together Macbeth very well, but it's when we see his dark side that he really truly shines. The rest of the wonderful company were delightful as well, but I would be lying if I said the performances of Dukes and Garman weren't what makes this production a "must see".

Les Water's direction was very inventive and creative. The rubble scattered around would effortlessly become any and everything under the sun. The costume design by Kristopher Castle was deceptively brilliant. At first, it comes across as simplistic, but that simplicity allows a modern audience to connect to the characters in a deeper and unique way. It reminds us that the play is about people, just like us. I also must express my amazement at the wonderful stage combat in the show. All of it was handled perfectly.

The only quibbles I had with the show are minimal, but worth mentioning. In this production the witches are represented by three creepy little girls. It's a wonderful interpretation, and anytime they were present, the audience would tense up in legitimate fear. In their first scene they release a blood curdling shriek, that scares the audience half to death, again, a very effective choice. Sadly, they continue to shriek throughout the show, at least once in all of their scenes. The fright is lost fairly quickly, and begins to feel more annoying than anything, no one enjoys screaming children, and it was just too much at times. Finally, I must mention the violence of Act 2. There were some great effects, but they pulled focus to often. Exposing violence earlier in the show (of the same extreme nature) would have been the best thing to desensitize the audience before the gripping final moments.

Wrapping things up, I highly recommend this production to Shakespeare and horror fans everywhere. The gorey nature of the show makes it the perfect thing to get into the Halloween spirit. The performances are masterclass quality, the concept is inventive, and the technical elements are top notch. I would definitely add this to your list of things to see this October.

Macbeth

October 4-26, 2016

Actors Theatre of Louisville

316 West Main Street

Louisville, Kentucky 40202

502-584-1205

Actorstheatre.org

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