Murder on the Menu

Review of USF from a summer class.

All hail the Thane of Cawdor! I felt that I should have been clapping along with the men on stage when Ross and Angus informed him of his new title. The use of the space around the stage and the movement of those off and on it drew me into this production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth very quickly. Momentum was maintained despite the difficult scene shifts of the play and the lack of those scenes which Joseph Hanreddy chose to cut, such as the scene involving Hecate. Overall, I would say the decisions regarding the addition or deletion of scenes and characters uphold the integrity of the play. The addition of a coronation scene with Macbeth was a good choice because this scene allowed the foreshadowing of disaster to come through his eager return to Lady Macbeth, which prevented the conclusion of the ceremony.
Grant Goodman played an intriguing Macbeth. I was quite taken aback when he proclaimed, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” I had not anticipated a blonde Macbeth and did not realize my expectation of hair to match his dark character until this expectation was not met. Once I had grown accustomed to his hair, I liked it because the light color relieved some of the evil associated with Macbeth, which freed him to be a misguided man who got carried away in things beyond his control. I appreciated Kymberly Mellen’s Lady Macbeth. Her portrayal of the scene in the first act after she has received the message sent from her husband worked very well for me. She played her role from the place of a woman that was gentle and passionate reaching for an ambition that she had never before dreamed could be hers and thus steeling herself for an action beyond her moral character. The young age of Banquo’s son surprised me, but this is a wise tactical move that provides more time for him to come to the throne, which relieves the implausibility of him achieving the crown when Malcolm is crowned at the end. Michael Brusasco showed that he deserved his role as Macduff through his intense emotion during the scene where Ross reveals the fate of his wife and babes. His performance of a line prior to this, “Such welcome and unwelcome things at once / ‘tis hard to reconcile,” was simply beautiful. I feel Joseph Hanreddy made a risky decision as a director when he depicted the witches as he did, but for me, this risk worked excellently. I loved the unique viewpoint and particularly the extreme facial expressions of the third witch, Chelsea Steverson.
The costume designer, Bill Black, used the simple color scheme wonderfully. The gray of the priest’s outfit was especially striking. Lady Macbeth’s white nightgown emphasized her role of innocence while making the important murder discovery scene stand out and demonstrated her deterioration over the play with its dirtier reoccurrence towards the end of the play. I particularly liked the double meaning of the Macbeths’ black clothing after the murder of the king. This costuming demonstrated both mourning and the darkness of the deed they had done and its blot upon their souls. The dark circles under Macbeth eyes made a brilliant indicator of his sleepless distress as events intensified near the end.
Donna Ruzika and Lindsay Jones did brilliant jobs as the designers of light and sound for this production. I loved the way the blue lighting played off the dirt on the floor and gave the stage and eerie look. The use of music as a transition between places was fascinating although it was a little too loud on occasion. Troy Hemmerling’s scene designs were a masterful contribution to the director’s vision and created a great atmosphere for the mood of this somber story. The trees seemed a little out of place at the beginning, but I loved the shadows on them as Macbeth talked with the murderers. Anthony Marotta’s blocking for some of the fights was a little weak and unconvincing, but fight blocking is difficult as fight scenes can be dangerous. In particular, the scene where the murderers go after Banquo and his son was neither believable nor smooth.
The many technical and artistic aspects of this piece combined to make a brilliant atmosphere and a strong performance. The pace matched the intensity of the action and there was never a dull or unprofessional moment. The actors knew their lines and were capable of dealing with outside distractions. Macbeth in particular pulled off his famous tomorrow speech with a mere pause when the car alarm went off in the distance. This merely gained the potential of adding to the play by the connection of his tomorrow with a car alarm in our present. Our today is but Macbeth’s tomorrow and soon our today will be a thing of the past as is his murderous reign. Not that this play needs much to connect it to our current audiences. Macbeth is a play about war, adapting to it, and its end. A play about how the leadership of a country can go terribly wrong with bloody results. This Utah Shakespearean Festival production must have resonated soundly with those who watched it.