Shakes in Sac is back with Mac
SSF has plenty to offer audiences who know the play already, but is a wonderful introduction to newcomers to this popular Shakespeare title.
Summer in Sacramento means different things to different people. Some people love to spend as much time on thoy this novel thing called “vacation days” and if you’re like me, you’re looking forward to as much air conditioning as possible and to reading some seriously scary books. So, when I was able to see a seriously spooky production of Macbeth at the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival, I jumped at the chance.
The Tragedy of Macbeth, or The Scottish play, is in the Top Five of Shakespeare’s most often produced works and likely the one that I have seen the most as it is my absolute favorite. (It’s also my favorite Shakespeare I’ve ever acted in, despite breaking my wrist during the production and not noticing until after the show had closed.) And this production was both a delight to my Shakespeare fan sensibilities and spine tingling enough to give me chills in the scorching Sacramento summer.
Just in case your 10th grade English class read Julius Caesar and not Macbeth, here’s the quick version: Macbeth is a tragedy about a man who murders the King of Scotland in order to become King himself. The play is full of ambition, betrayal, and murder. Macbeth is eventually defeated and killed, and his wife, Lady Macbeth, takes her own life. The play is a warning about the dangers of ambition and the corrupting influence of power. Many film iterations have been made of Macbeth including a terrifying PBS miniseries featuring Patrick Stewart as the titular character and the fiercely somber Joel Cohen adaptation featuring Denzel Washington.
What has made Macbeth stand the test of time, however, is the supernatural elements surrounding the play and the famed Macbeth Curse. The show opens with three witches that foretell a prophesy that Macbeth will be King and it is rumored that those witches, aptly named The Weird Sisters, were using real incantations within the text of the play. The Curse has been written about by better writers than me (The RSC has a great page on it) but here is your three sentence summary:
The Macbeth Curse is a superstition that anyone who plays a role in Macbeth will suffer bad luck or even death. The curse is said to have originated when several actors who appeared in Macbeth either died shortly after performing the show or suffered injuries/other harm during the production. The curse has been attributed to a variety of causes, including supernatural forces, the play's dark themes, and King James I banning the show from being performed after its debut in 1606.
The Sacramento Shakespeare Festival, an arm of City City Theatre at Sacramento City College, has produced this play with gusto. Co-directed by Christine Nicholson and Lori Ann DeLappe-Grondin, the show features 29 actors and clips along at a deft pace. Macbeth is one of the shorter of Shakespeare’s plays, clocking in at just over 17K words (in juxtaposition to Hamlet’s mind boggling 30K!) and this gives DeLappe-Grondin’s adaptation room to breathe and does not sacrifice some of the often cut characters/lines. (HOORAY FOR HECATE!)
The large cast and high production values (hat tip to Nicole Sivell for costumes and Shawn Weinsheink on set) easily transforms the Art Court Theatre into 11th Century Scotland and sets the scene for the twisted world of the Weird Sisters, aka those infamous Witches.
Standout performances include the couple themselves: Brandon Lancaster as Macbeth and Jackie Martin as Lady Macbeth. Martin, veteran of SSF is a potent Lady Macbeth who, when delivering the iconic Unsex Me Here monologue (staged beautifully with Lady M using runes to summon spirits, the best staging I’ve ever seen of this monologue), is a stunning combination of sensual and terrifying. Her counterpart, Brandon Lancaster as Mac is both a physical and tonal match to Martin and their intimate chemistry is palpable which does well to establish their complicated relationship despite limited joint stage time.
Lancaster’s Mac is physically striking as the actor stands at a towering six and a half feet and his rapid descent into madness is well telegraphed with his physicality evolving from wanton warrior to desperate despot in the course of 2 and a half hours.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the strong work of the ensemble and supporting roles in this production. While most come for Mac and stay for Lady Mac, the performances of Kathleen Poe as Macduff, Bethany Wheat as Malcolm, and Riley J Burke as the Bloody Sergeant/Murderer/Seyton were beautiful foils against the strong leads. Burke’s eerily deadpan stare as one of the three murderers as she carried out the worst of Macbeth’s orders was particularly chilling.
Kathleen Poe as Macduff shows both heartbreaking hubris and a wide range of grief, rage, and righteousness through the arc of seeking justice for the fallen King Duncan (played by the steadfastly regal Sarah Palmero) through losing his wife and family at the hands of Macbeth’s deadly hired hands. The combination of Poe’s performance and a show stopping performance of Lauren Graffigna as Macduff’s wife, Lady Macduff, gives this production the high emotional stakes of the consequences of war and bloodshed. Huge props to the directors and adapters for keeping the Lady Macduff scene so intact to give Graffinga a steady build as her death scene can often be swallowed up in all of the other bloodshed in this high body count piece.
And speaking of blood, a note to those who are squeamish about even stage blood: I am able to report that despite this show being “bloody, bold, and resolute”, that there is no blood on stage. While this is normally a huge part of Macbeth productions, blood on the hands of the murderers does not appear and is instead simulated with a intricately designed lighting plot by Isaiah Leeper, and is incredibly effective while being much less messy than other productions I have seen.
Intricate and detailed is the best description for this play that I can give as this is an obvious love letter to Shakespearean works by directors DeLappe-Grondin and Nicholson. The co-direction results in a work of Shakespeare that is both entertaining and educational as this is an authentic, well told Macbeth that is a perfect introduction to the work of the Bard. The work done to make sure the actors understood the text is well used as the intention of each line is well punctuated by the actors. The use of movement designed by Julianna Hess references both the historical period and gives the strong ensemble/Witches a compelling visual story, adding depth to this haunting tale.
Macbeth runs through July 23rd at the Art Court Theatre at Sacramento City College and has been selling out quickly. Tickets can be purchased at the festival’s website and start as low as $10!
After you’ve seen it, make sure to come back and tell us your thoughts! Theatre Habit is designed to create conversations about theatre as it is a living, breathing artform. Theatre is nothing without it’s audience and is needed more than ever as the ability to connect with each other is becoming more elusive.
See you at the theatre!
Special thanks to Lori Ann DeLappe-Grondin and Wildflower Women’s Ensemble for access to a copy of the script.
Need to see this!