Review: MACBETH IN STRIDE at Shakespeare Theatre Company

What if the three witches of “Macbeth” were The Supremes?

They aren’t actually that in Whitney White’s concert cum critique “Macbeth in Stride” at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. But they do backup singing, some choreographed dance moves (by Raja Feather Kelly), reply and advise the lead and never quite leave the stage, itself dressed up like a spangly nightclub revue (set by Daniel Soule, lighting by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew). In all, it seems perfect for that girl group from Detroit.

It’s an idea that works in White’s grabbag livewire literary analysis, a kind of dramaturgy with a downbeat. But her essential premise: Why aren’t there Black women in Shakespeare plays? Is asking a lot of a 400 year old text. Nevertheless, it’s a timely inquiry in an era of racial reckoning, amid the a city Shakespeare Everywhere Festival that’s being held in a half dozen locations in D.C. through the end of the year. 

Moving from actress who portrays Lady Macbeth to a “Woman” who comments on it, White — who wrote, composed and stars in the piece — at first clamors to become queen through any means necessary, declaring ambition not a bad thing at all, but only seen as such when women pursue it.

Once connected to royalty, though, she begins to question it — and especially how Lady Macbeth’s downplayed role in the work once the deadly deed she urges is done and the damn spot is out, out. She even suffers the indignity of dying offstage, poor thing. How’s that for denying someone her big moment?

As strong as White is as a front woman and dynamic R&B force when singing at the start of the piece, when it seems that the work will really be building something, the pace eventually slows, she turns to the original texts ... and there’s a drip of the would-be king to contend with.

With a reedy voice, Charlie Thurston (stage name: Man) in his leather coat, sleeveless T-shirt and tattoos is less Metallica in delivery and more Coldplay. Despite efforts to approach rock opera, the dude doesn’t even get to have a guitar to sling around his neck. Instead, he’s given that most square instrument, something more suited to Weird Al Yankovic, the accordion (but then again, this is often known as the Scottish play).

It’s not Thurston’s fault necessarily — he was obviously written this way, the straw man for all the men who populated this play and all of Elizabethan theater. 

Directed by Tyler Dobrowsky and Taibi Magar, “Macbeth in Stride” gets its pulse from a talented on-stage band, led by Steven Cuevas on keyboards, with Jordan Carter on drums (for the opening weekend), DeAnté Hagggerty on guitar and Reggie Payne on bass. They all keep the groove going even when they begin quoting from the poetic Shakespearean text. In fact, this is the perfect way to hear this kind of poetry, it turns out.

White originally developed this piece as a cabaret act while getting her MFA at Brown, mixing Tina Turner songs with Lady Macbeth monologues.

That still might have been a better idea than all-original songs, some of which sound only like space-fillers, even the ones designed to be centerpieces of the work (“Reach for It”).

The usual problem that comes with presenting a big, brash musical is balancing all the sound. Everything has to be louder than the drums to be heard, and not everything always is. It must be difficult for sound designer Nick Kourtides to keep it all straight. As it is, the sassy witches (Stacey Sergeant, Ximone Rose and Chelsea Lee Williams) and everyone else each have headset and hand-held microphones and they all seem to be working. But there was still some fine tuning to be done. 

The costumes by Qween Jean are versitlle and surprising — the witches whip off their dour black coveralls for their stage attire at the start, and White’s Lady Macbeth gets full dazzle (though her character disses it at one point). 

Lights go up and there is a pause suddenly as if there would be an intermission. Instead, the witches approach the audience and ask what they’re getting out of it. A high school theater student who came up to answer questions opening night seems to have gotten it, though she confesses previous unfamiliarity to the play. 

And this is where “Macbeth in Stride” may be most useful — as a supplementary piece or tuneful introduction to provide further meaning to the enduring work. It eliminates too much of the original play to be taken as an equal substitute.

Indeed, after the faux intermission, White’s heart seems to go out of it, just as Lady Macbeth’s does. It wraps up quickly and she makes the wrong choice by doing the climactic song solo at the piano, minus some of the strongest elements she has — the band and the witches that were the backing chorus. 

Still, it’s a frisky work that at the very least whets the appetite for the Shakespeare Theater Company’s presumably more direct production of “Macbeth” in April with no less than Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma, directed by artistic director Simon Godwin. 

As for White, a theatrical whiz who previously directed James Baldwin’s “The Amen Corner” at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in 2021 and who is earning praise on Broadway currently, directing Jocelyn Bioh’s “Jaja’s African Hair Branding”, she is an obvious force to be reckoned with on stage.

Presented in association with the Philadelphia Theatre Company and the Brooklyn Academy of music, “Macbeth in Stride,” is just one of what’s planned to be a five-part cycle she’s doing, deconstructing Shakespeare’s depiction of women (even though, she points out here, they never seem to get out of his plays alive). Still, such a plan is ambitious enough to be admired by Lady Macbeth herself.

Running time: About 90 minutes, no intermission. 

Photo credit: Chelsea Lee Williams, Stacey Sargeant, Ximone Rose and Whitney White in “Macbeth in Stride.” Photo by Teresa Wood.

“Macbeth in Stride" continues at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre, 450 7th St NW through Oct. 29. Tickets at 202-547-1122 or online.

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