Review: Macbeth by Mary Moody Northen Theatre
by Michael Meigs

Macbeth, intrepid thane of Glamis promoted for valor to thane of Cawdor, is seduced by the lure of greatness and power. These are promised to him by the mendacious witches known as the weird sisters and by his lady wife, more avaricious and duplicitous than her soldier husband.

 

Shakespeare's story, one of the infernal vortex and pit of ambition, is well served by the minimalist set design of Theada Haining and by Kathryn Eader's evocative lighting in the vast space of the Mary Moody Northen Theatre . Darkness encroaches from all sides as the vision of a crown, prophecies of elevation, Zia Fox's throbbing sound design, and his wife's intense persuasion push the thane to the dark side.

 

 Macbeth is a thrilling, alluring ride into a hellscape, here embodied by the three witches that Indigo Lane, Gabrielle Caumon and Anna Southern portray. Susan Branch Towne's stylized costumes for them with runic markings, tatoos, and masks emphasize their other-worldliness, in contrast to the more severe northern garb of mere humans. When she appears in the high southwest corner of the playing space, Emily Beck as Hecate the doyenne of black arts is similarly costumed.

 

The shortest of the tragedies, Macbeth careens with a rhythm of relentless violence. The director adroitly stylizes the outcomes; instead of sprawling on the stage when killed or murdered, a character lifts into a momentary pool of light, a spirit departing. This technique creates an intense, beautiful moment. It also makes cleaning up and clearing the stage a lot easier. 

 

Macbeth is spellbinding—if you already know the story and the text. The MMNT production directed by Marcus McQuirter captures every word of the script but if you're new to Shakespeare, you may well be in trouble. Actors Equity guest artists Jon Cook as Macbeth and Dane Paker as his eventual nemesis Macduff deliver vivid, eloquent portraits of those personages, but when it comes to intelligibility, the St. Ed's student cast is all over the map. They capture every syllable of Shakespeare's tale, but all too often they do not deliver the meanings or establish characters. There are few pauses; there's lots of shouting; all too often, lines are delivered at speeds inimical to comprehension. The best-paced and most articulate of them include Erick Aguilar as Lennox, Rafael de la Cruz as King Duncan, Tori Petrosino as Banquo, Jake McDonald as the doctor, and Chloe Nichols as Lady Macduff.

 

The opening scene with the wounded sergeant is largely incomprehensible, as is the comic interlude with the drunken porter at the gate.

 

 

Cook's Macbeth is indecisive before the enigmatic prophecies of the witches but quickly overwhelmed by his wife's urgings. By pairing Cook, sinewy, short, and tetchy, with the taller, forceful Marie Ritchie as Lady Macbeth, McQuirter creates an entirely believable mutually destructive relationship. Ritchie is as voluble as others in the cast, but her verbal assaults on her husband are motivated and persuasive.

 

 

If you don't know the story and the text, you may well be lost when trying to decipher this production. When the single intermission ended, a noticeable number of seats in the formerly full house had been vacated.

 

A dozen years ago at the Hyde Park Thatre, Cook played a slow-witted busboy/barista in  Annie Baker's The Aliens. His Macbeth and subsequent impressive resumé from across the U.S., prove that in 2012 he was in fact a perceptive UT BFA actor submerging himself into his character. In this production, he's intense, vulnerable, and ferocious. Equity counterpart Dane Parker, a magna cum laude graduate of Southwestern University, has a long list of Austin-area credits. Their duel at play's end, choreographed by Andrew Heinrich, is replete with surprises and reversals, an appropriate enactment of Macbeth's furious cry, "Then lay on, MacDuff;/And damned be him who first cries, hold, enough!"

 

EXTRA

Click to view the Mary Moody Northen Theatre program for Macbeth.

 

 

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Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
Mary Moody Northen Theatre

September 19 - 29, 2024

Mary Moody Northen Theatre, St. Edward's University, Austin

Adult tickets are $28, educator/seniors are $24, and student tickets are $15.   Tickets are available online or by calling the MMNT Box Office at 512-448-8484. Get Tickets