Randuwa II: Folger Theatre: MacBeth

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Folger Theatre: MacBeth

I have seen MacBeth staged on a couple of occasions, but I have never seen it staged like this, and I can pretty much guarantee that you haven't either! Folger Theatre's current production of this quintessential Shakespearean play is a restoration of one of the earliest adaptations. A little bit of history is in order. The 17th century in England after the death of Queen Elizabeth I (and William Shakespeare) was a tumultuous century marked by rebellion against the crown and then the restoration of the crown in 1660. This adaptation was written after that Restoration by Sir William Davenant, and this production is a restoration of sorts of that manuscript also set during the time of the Restoration in England. Specifically it is placed in the Belham Mental Asylum just two weeks after the Great Fire of 1666. The premise is that the inmates are staging the play under the guidance of the asylum's warden. The inhabitants are insane, you will remember, and the inmate playing Lady MacBeth switches out the play knives for the real deal thus leading to the actual murder of their King Duncan and then everything slides into a dark, yet highly entertaining running of the play. The adaptation includes two additional scenes, one between Lady MacBeth and the newly crowned King MacBeth. The other is had between MacDuff and Lady MacDuff. The roles of the witches is expanded considerably, and period music as well as appropriate sound effects are provided by the Folger Consort. Songs are added in the form of madrigals, as well as a recitatif reminiscent of Handel. I'm telling you, it was wonderfully entertaining on every level.

The cast was superb. MacBeth played by Ian Merrill Peakes was every inch the johnny-come-lately tortured schemer, and Kate Eastwood Norris' rendering of Lady MacBeth was wryly ruthless and then slowly she transformed into the tortured soul as MacBeth himself rises and becomes the evil that she had envisioned for him from the beginning. I believe this was a family thing as Karen Peakes excelled at the virtuous and doomed Lady MacDuff, while her son Own Peakes captured the spirit of Fleance with a consistent intensity that you rarely see in one so young. The witches were all just deliciously perfect even down to the fact that one was played by Ethan Watermeier in Drag. And finally a shout out to Rafael Sebastian as Malcolm, Duncan's eldest son and rightful heir to the throne of Scotland. Like a magically choreographed set of streamers sent blowing in the wind, the actors wove their performances through a set that was simply perfect in every way. It was both a prison with solid bars in which they were trapped by fate (Get it? Great metaphor, right?), and a series of impermanent sails and streamers of rags that dangled and closed and opened and even became screens through which shadow scenes danced in pantomime to enhance the action occurring before them. The most effecting moments came with the ghoulish shadows from behind in forms like something out of an Hieronymus Bosch painting danced with the ones cast by the actors standing in front.

I will confess that not realizing the extent to which this production was going to be both atypical and historically accurate to a tumultuous time period, my going before hand was a little lukewarm. Post production, I would honestly have to say it was one of the finest experiences of a Shakespeare play that I have ever had. You have two weeks to try and get a ticket, but don't be surprised if they are sold out.