Review: MACBETH at Augustana University Theatre

Augustana University Theater’s adaptation for Kennedy Center’s American College of Theater Festival is a tight production of William Shakespeare’s MACBETH, directed and adapted by Jayna Gearhart Fitzsimmons. Jacee Casarella’s set design was the first glance at the power struggle portrayed in the script and the lighting design by Lucas Granholm had the right elements of drama in propelling the audience into the dank atmosphere of the script. The visual appeal of this production is impressive with flying buttress-like towers, various playing levels and textures in the set decor that all lent an air of austerity to the foreboding action.  It was a fitting atmosphere for a piece of literature that is possibly the most commonly quoted of Shakespeare’s vast catalog of writings. It is illuminating to realize some commonly used catchphrases of the English language vernacular are attributable to the bard in this work.  

Many of the common theatrically quoted phrases of this production deal with madness, and paranormal activity and that thread of creepiness was never more skillfully illuminated on stage than when Alanna Smith, Mikayla Browning, and Mikennah Oleson were portraying the three witches.  Their brilliant characterizations were an embodiment of some consistently lithe serpentine body movement, fierce “crazy eyes” and cackling laughter vocal tones and whispers.  They were the spooky, “other-worldly”  fabric that propelled the performance with a pace and dramatic tenor fitting the nature of the play.

T.J. Ashes as Macbeth has a vocal  intensity on stage and was clearly embracing the conflicted nature of his character, but by and large could slow down his delivery a bit.   Vaughn Schneider as McDuff also has  the stage presence that  directors love for a character like McDuff, but the words  of the script were delivered with a rapidity and volume that were at times distorted. Brenden Larson’s Banquo had impressive delivery because he did make the connection of the words in the script to his character’s development in a very natural performance. I liked his death scene, and felt it was pretty realistic until the last moment when he falls through a portal, and has to lift his feet to clear a small threshold. It took me out of the visual effect of his fall to see the intentional rise of his feet to cross that barrier.  It would be beneficial to find a way to fix that. Zander Dziedzic as Ross and Fleance needed a little more contrast physically and vocally to differentiate between his two character portrayals.

Avery Store as Malcolm settles best into the role when the script allows for some intensity of emotion in the last scenes of the play. There are some brilliant moments of communication in her performance when given the chance to really play off McDuff.  Jules Lemos  is adept at moving from character to character with intricate costume changes, but was delivering those characters with mostly the same vocal tones and physical presence.  Her delivery of the script was audibly clear, and she connects the lines to the actions, but it might be too challenging to make all the mental shifts with those character changes.

Liv Moeller proved a powerful presence on stage in her role as Lady Macbeth. Her ambition and cunning manipulation of Macbeth was believable,  but there were some blocking choices for this character by the director. Her vocal delivery was always on point, but some blocking choices in the final scenes for her were weak and did not lend any power to her character’s portrayal of a spiraling madness. 

There are two more chances to experience this production at Augustana University Theater and tickets are available www.augie.edu/tickets or at the door prior to show start.  

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.