Macbeth

At Bard on the Beach until September 20, 2018
Tickets from $24 at  bardonthebeach.org or 604-739-0559

Posted June 20, 2018

I saw two Macbeths this past week: one – Grade 6 and 7, Division 1, Myrtle Philip Community School, Whistler, BC – was super fun. The other – at Bard on the Beach – is solid, fairly traditional and, as always, well done.

Under Chris Abraham’s direction, it doesn’t, however, take many risks. Costumes by Christine Reimer are appropriate to the period of the writing of the play – 17^th Century with bits of medieval armour thrown in: furs and velvets, coarse woolen shawls and some tartans. Lady Macbeth’s gown, with a bit of an Elizabethan collar, is splendid. Pam Johnson’s set is austere: high planked wooden walls with two huge doors in the centre. Some scenes – most notably the big battle scene at the end – have action both in front and behind the open doors. Above is a balcony running stage left to stage right where characters move – often rush – back and forth as all hell breaks loose in Macbeth’s castle and on the battlefield. There are drum rolls, bagpipes, sounds of thunder. All fairly conventional.

The treatment of the three weird sisters, however, puts a slightly new twist on what they were all about: messing with Macbeth’s brain. It occurs to me that the last of the weird sisters’ prophesies is not realized – or at least there’s no record of it: Fleance, Banquo’s adolescent son, does not ascend the throne. According to Holinshed’s Chronicles, Fleance flees to Wales and much later begets a son who becomes a steward to the King of Scotland. Not quite the same thing as becoming the King of Scotland. So, the weird sisters (Emma Slipp, Kate Besworth and Harveen Sandhu) don’t quite get it right and in this production they cackle and laugh and chortle with unbridled glee as if they are just leading Macbeth on – just to see how far they can get him to go which, as it turns out, is all the way. Director Abraham, brings them back at the falling curtain perhaps to emphasize who has been turning the wheels the whole time. The three weird sisters figure more prominently in this production than is generally the case.

Lady Macbeth’s inability to give Macbeth a child is suggested by an empty cradle that is rudely carried off even before the play starts. Her boundless ambition is implied by that vacant cradle: if she can’t give Macbeth an heir, she damned well will be Queen of Scotland. Moya O’Connell’s Lady Macbeth leaves no doubt that Macbeth would not – could not – have killed King Duncan without her urging. O’Connell launches almost feverishly into both verbal and physical assaults on Macbeth.

Ben Carlson’s Macbeth is a little older, a little greyer than some I’ve seen and it works especially in his, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” monologue. Carlson brings home Macbeth’s complete weariness with everything.

Kayvon Khoshkam’s Porter is the best I’ve ever seen: funny, clear, portentous. Craig Erickson makes such a brave and hearty Banquo that Macbeth’s betrayal of him makes Macbeth even more villainous. Killing a king to gain power is one thing; hiring murderers to kill your best friend is another.

Andrew Wheeler is a powerful Macduff: strong, decent and likeable and, when Macduff’s wife and his “little chicks” are slaughtered, Wheeler makes Banquo’s grief palpable.

Also interesting – and a little risky– is casting Jeff Gladstone as Malcolm, heir to the Scottish throne. It’s a long and peculiar scene when Malcolm tries to convince Macduff that he’s a really bad choice for the King of Scotland, then confesses he has just been testing Macduff all along. Gladstone is slight, boy-next-door good looking and has not much in the way of gravitas. Is director Abraham hinting that the throne of Scotland is in weak hands and/or that strife will begin again because Malcolm doesn’t have the capacity to rule? Strangely, many of the Myrtle Philip students whose Macbeth I saw at the beginning of the week and who came down from Whistler to see this Bard production, liked Malcolm the best because, “He’s sort of like us. Kind of regular.” Maybe that’s what we need in leaders. Someone sort of like us.

Bard’s production of Macbeth, with its brilliant swordplay choreographed by Jonathan Hawley Purvis, is strong, solid and a safe choice for regular Bard goers as well as visitors coming to Vancouver this summer.