Macbeth
Tickets from $49
Cititour.com Review
Why exactly are a gaggle of teenage girls, dressed in Scottish-inspired school uniforms, running around an oddly decorated field re-enacting William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” occasionally breaking out a cell phone to record a video or take a selfie, yet just as often seeming fully immersed in the Bard’s timeless tale? That thought is likely to enter your head while watching Erica Schmidt’s thrillingly visceral, often humorous 90-minute adaptation of this classic tragedy, now being presented by the Hunter Project.
Admittedly, truth be told, Schmidt’s concept can often feel almost as muddy as the rain-soaked heath on which a crucial scene is set. (Much is explained is by her director’s note in the program – which, for some reason, isn’t given to theatergoers until after the play, and will therefore not be discussed here.) But if you focus purely on what’s on the stage, you’ll quickly realize that the work’s parallels to modern-day society (especially the cliquishness of teenagers) essentially speaks for itself. Indeed, you will be glad that you took your own toil and trouble to catch it.
More importantly, this is among the most passionate versions of the play ever performed. Chief among the main players is the impressive Brittany Bradford, who smartly captures Macbeth’s almost quicksilver transition from meek but loyal nobleman to halfheartedly ambitious throne-grabber – egged on in large measure by the prophecy of the three witches – to a power-hungry, semi-delusional monarch who begins to believe in his invincibility. Yes, this Macbeth is still capable of self-reflection – Bradford’s recitation of the famed “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” speech is excellent – but what comes through strongest is the age-old message that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Bradford is evenly matched, if not surpassed, by the superb Ismenia Mendes, who etches a sharp-edged portrait of Lady Macbeth. She’s equally riveting in the early scenes as she berates her husband for his timidity, begging to be “unsexed” so that she can be the man in the family and do the dirtiest deeds herself, as she is during the heart-wrenching “sleepwalking” scene, when she’s so overcome by guilt and remorse that she washes her hands continuously in a futile effort to wash off an invisible bloodstain.
Since the rest of the cast often plays multiple roles, they don’t make as strong individual impressions. Still, Camila Cano-Flavia is completely convincing as the righteous, stolid MacDuff, and Ayana Workman, Sharlene Cruz, Dylan Gelula and Sophie Kelly-Hedrick are consistently welcome presences onstage. Moreover, all the women should be commended for enduring the massive on-stage rainstorm to which Schmidt subjects them, almost literally soaking them to bone.
In the end, the production's merits notwithstanding, Macbeth reminds us (as does the nightly news) that there seems to be no limit of cruelty people will go to, whether to achieve a “noble” goal, to gain standing in the world, or simply for mere sport. To quote an entirely different Shakespeare play: “What a piece of work is man.”
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
https://www.huntertheaterproject.org/
Open/Close Dates
Opening 1/6/2020
Closing 2/22/2020
Theatre Info
The Frederick Loewe Theatre @ Hunter College
East 68th St (Park & Lexington Ave)
Neighborhood: East 60s
New York, NY 10065
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