If you live in DC, I highly recommend that you get yourself over to the Folger and buy a ticket for the MacBeth which is running through sometime in April. The thing is as accessible as a movie and as powerful as, well, a Shakespearean tragedy. The casting is slightly uneven--in particular, Kate Eastwood Norris' Lady MacBeth is way over the top for a role I didn't think could be played too crazy. I like me some scenery-chewing, but her borderline hysteria from moment one makes it impossible to believe that MacBeth would have listened too her. However, Ian Merrill Peakes is terrific as MacBeth--not so much in the way he says his lines as in the way his body powerfully conveys what is going on when he isn't speaking. And Dan Olmstead is absolutely outstanding as (among other things) Duncan.
And you won't care about any casting lapses, because it's simply the best staging of a Shakespeare play I've ever seen, and the style of the Folger Theater, which is modeled on the Elizabethan, makes it even more powerful. Every detail is absolutely spot-on. The set is spare, and almost modernistic, but crawling with metal vines that perfectly evoke the rot at Dunsinane. The costumes are good, the stage direction is brilliant, and the score--provided by an onstage percussionist who is visible to the audience--provides nearly unbearable dramatic tension. At one point, a particularly wrenching noise caused me to throw my pen and notebook into the air. There's plenty of fake blood. And the comedic moments are pitch-perfect. The three weird sisters alone are worth the price of admission.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the co-direction by Teller (of Penn &). He's got a series of blog-like posts going back over a year discussing the entire production process (without giving away any secrets, of course).
I've been reading it since he started and I'm really annoyed that I won't be able to see the show.
http://www.pennandteller.com/03/coolstuff/tellersessays.html
He goes into great detail about everything, including the fake blood of course, and also how great it was working with the insane percussionist and the sounds he'd come up with.
Info on who helped bring this staging to life:
http://www.pennandteller.com/03/coolstuff/tellersmacbethindex.html
You win this time, Lou...
Fair is foul and foul is fair.
Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
Showed like a rebel's whore.
Glad to hear that it's a success. not least since the last Shakespeare I saw there featured a Richard III who seemed to have modeled his performance upon Hugh Laurie in "House"...
Where's Tyler Cowen when you need him? He seems to find markets in ... many places..
"The entire run of Macbeth is currently sold out. Standing room tickets are available for purchase at the box office window one hour prior to each performance for $15 on a first come, first served basis."
http://www.folger.edu/woSummary.cfm?wotypeid=2&season=c&woid=413
Other than that, did you like it?
Meaghan,
thanks for telling us that we must see this play, which you tell us "is running through sometime in April." Gee, when exactly in April will it close? I think I need to buy my tickets before it closes. Where oh where could I find out when in April it closes and where I can buy my tickets.
Maybe if I left-click on the hyperlink you provide I could find out. Sounds promising to me. But it's very difficult to find out exactly when a play like this might close--that's why you can't tell us exactly when the play will close, just "sometime" in April.
Well, I'll left click anyway. What does it say? This:
"EXTENDED through April 13!
The entire run of Macbeth is currently sold out. Standing room tickets are available for purchase at the box office window one hour prior to each performance for $15 on a first come, first served basis."
I'm getting my tickets tonight. Thanks for the recommendation!
I saw this the other weekend, thanks to a friend with incredible luck on Craigslist.
I wasn't really that impressed by Duncan, but maybe I wasn't paying that much attention to him. I mean, he dies fairly early, after all, and the actor is later seen in other roles.
Peakes' Macbeth was extraordinary, though. And Eric Hissom does a good turn as the Porter. And those tricks, ohhh, those tricks. They didn't upstage the performances (the performances were that good), but I still go home wondering how they hid Banquo. Not to mention, the percussionist, heard all through the play. The "bubble, bubble" chant is still thrumming in my head...