TribLIVE: Shakespeare's dark tale of reckless ambition and murder gets an even darker reading in Pict Classic Theatre's “Macbeth.”
Director Alan Stanford, scenic designers Michael Thomas Essad and costume designer Michael Montgomery created a spare, sharp edged and very black world where spritely singing witches gambol and ambitions spin out of control.
4 comments:
That was disappointing. I love Macbeth, and the fact that this production sucks is really sad. As Dick Block and Kevin Hines have said, if the actors and audience are concerned about safety, you're doing your sets wrong. Why would you make unsafe staircases? That is moronic. Stairs are annoying enough as they are, don't make them worse. And for world class actors, why are they being criticized so much? I was really excited for this show, but I guess I won't spend my money on it now. Or maybe I will, because it's better to see bad theatre than to not see theatre at all.
Shakespeare is a fickle mistress. The plays are brilliant, but the concept of Shakespeare is so deeply engrained in the cultural canon that I think for the most part actors and audience hear the meter and the "Shakespeare-ness" before they hear the action of the people his plays represent. Why do a play unless you can bring something new to the story beyond the typical interpretation. I'm sure this production will find its way onto its feet, but there's nothing revolutionary about making a dark, greedy version of Macbeth. A dangerous set does not a daring production make.
This production must be really bad. I say this because, at least in Pittsburgh, I find that it's difficult to actually receive a bad review in a publication. I've seen or worked on shows here that I thought were bad, that the actors thought were bad, sometimes even that the director thought were bad. However, many of these productions still managed to come out with at least a decent review. It just doesn't seem common for outwardly negative viewpoints of a production to come forth here. The gamut seems to have been from impartially objective to glowing. On the other hand, no press is bad press. So, because MacBeth DID receive this bad review, maybe more people will attend out of curiosity.
I can understand that the text derived from Shakespeare's text was so different from our native tongue and more difficult to depict. Macbeth itself is one of the most demanding- as it is one of his most famous works as well as it arguably contains the deepest underlying text. However, after reading this article and several other various reviews I am sad to agree that the production that PICT had performed where nowhere close to the precedence that I have set in my mind in reference to the show. Also, after recently learning about the rules and safety regulations when drafting sets, it baffles me that the staircase was made unsafe. If the staircase looks unsafe then it will take the audience away from the play in order to see that the actor is okay and not see what the character is doing. In all, bad Shakespeare is just bad Shakespeare and there is no getting around that.
Post a Comment