Macbeth
4 out of 5 Stars
Let’s start at the beginning - Shakespeare is Shakespeare. The very word may set off a visceral reaction in theatergoers. A Shakespeare performance will never be an easy stroll in the park (unless of course you're there to see Shakespeare in the Park). Preconceptions aside, this is a mesmerizing show from start to finish.
Throughout the performance, I couldn’t help but think how much William Shakespeare himself would have been wildly entertained by this production of Macbeth. From the direction by Rory McGregor, set design by Margaux Maeght, lightening design by Cha See and Ted Boyce-Smith, sound design by Rowan Spencer, and acting performances by the entire cast, this production rings the bell in all categories.
Rowan Spencer’s sound design deserves its own discussion. From the moment you walk into the theater you are enveloped by music you can’t possibly place into any category. Throughout the show, without being overly loud, the sounds penetrate the senses in a way that would captivate even a deaf person. In many ways, it is the tableau on which this play is performed.
Similarly, the set design could not be more innovative. What initially appear as hanging layers of cheap drop clothes, sequentially unveil a world that draws us deeper into Macbeth’s madness, stimulating both the senses and the imagination.
With our vast theater experience, I can’t think of another time I have been so primally frightened by a collection of characters – the witches. I now live in fear when I turn on the lights that these witches, with their haunted eyes and bloodied mouths, will be waiting for me (who put these fingerprints on my imagination? - read on).
Macbeth, charmingly, brutally, and captivatingly played by Jordan Bellow, inhabits every aspect of the role while spanning timelessness in the process. His name is worth keeping in your Google search file to follow future performances.
Phumzile Sitole brilliantly performs Macbeth’s badass wife, Lady Macbeth; filling the role of the woman behind the man that so eloquently drives this story.
My daughter, Hannah, is a producer, along with Jovan Hannah, as part their graduate studies.
This is a Columbia University graduate school director’s senior thesis. Leave thoughts of "school production" behind. This is top-notch theater at its finest. At no time did we sense compromise in this downtown move from Broadway. Ticket prices are low and the venue is small so every seat is great - highlighting this city's vast world of theater that is accessable to all.
“Finding an exaggerated, contemporary world for this perpetually relevant story to exist in” is stated in the program’s Director’s Note. Rory McGregor has accomplished this exquisitely.
Why we went: Special invite from the show's producer
JMG