reviewed by Alex Brooks
The Theatre Company at Hubbard Hall has opened a new production of MacBeth, directed by Hubbard Hall Artistic Director John Hadden.
Hadden, as a founding member of Shakespeare & Co., who worked as part of that company for twenty years, clearly knows his way around Shakespeare. In this production, he presents an interesting and incisive take on the play, focused on the relationship between the Macbeths and how that drives the bloody action of the play. Some of the scenes are moved to their bedroom, and indeed the weird sisters show up in their bedroom.
One of the most interesting aspects of this play is the way it embodies Shakespeare’s fascination with, and even fear of, female power. The way Lady Macbeth and the weird sisters are able to manipulate Macbeth into doing things he knows are going to turn out badly is the central fascination of the play.
But this production doesn’t quite realize Hadden’s vision for it. Gino Costabile is a dynamic and virile Macbeth, and Betsy Holt, who plays Lady Macbeth, is a wonderful actress, as evidenced by her portrayal of Constanze in Hubbard Hall’s production of Amadeus last season. But they don’t have much chemistry together. Nor do Macbeth and Banquo show much evidence of the deep bond of men who have fought side by side in combat, so when Macbeth’s ambition overleaps his better judgment, we don’t feel what it costs him emotionally to betray his comrade Banquo.
Similarly, later moments such as those when Macduff hears of the slaughter of his family, and when MacBeth hears of his wife’s death, fall peculiarly flat.
In this production, many of the actors portray multiple characters. Artfully done, this kind of thing can be barely noticeable and is surely a necessary expedient in a theatre company with limited resources. But when all but two of the actors are playing multiple parts, and half of them are playing four or more parts, it gets confusing. Banquo and Macduff are played by the same actor, and he looks pretty much the same in both parts. Christine Decker takes on (count ‘em) six different roles. Decker is a remarkable actress, and she carried off her parts with great skill, but being so ubiquitous throughout the play was a handicap to her performances.
The play, with its witches, ghosts, supernatural elements, and midnight skulduggery, is a wonderful opportunity for theatre magic through creative staging, use of darkness and memorable lighting effects. This production eschews such things. Even when they do use a shroud to create an eerie effect in one of the ghost scenes, it is done in the stage equivalent of full daylight. No attempt is made to enhance the effect with lighting.
The costumes are more 1980s punk than Elizabethan. The set is minimalist. There are three boxes that are re-arranged for different scenes. In several scenes they are set vertically, evenly spaced. I suppose they are meant to represent columns in the castle, but with no painting or decoration, they look more like lecterns, and the overall look is a little too much like the set of Jeopardy.
One might suppose that the non-specific sets and costumes aim to point to the universality of the behavior depicted, and to free it from a distant Elizabethan framework. Certainly, powerful men ruthlessly seeking power and wealth to please their women, or leaving their honor and morals behind when consumed with overweening ambition, is a theme relevant to the contemporary world. But this observer hungered for some indication of Scottish mountains or massive stone castles, or any kind of local color to anchor the story to a particular time or place.
In the world of community theater, one would have to call this an above-average production, and certainly it is worth seeing because the play itself is so marvelous. But considering the quality of what Hubbard Hall has done in the past, it was a bit of a disappointment.