The Shakespeare Theatre's Macbeth at Cactus High School
(out of 
)Mark S.P. Turvin
(home office) (602) 912-0117
I can be reached for comment via e-mail at: mspt@goldfishpublishers.com
Reviewed 1/16/00. Revised for factual error 1/19/00.
(out of )There's a Battle of the Bards this January, as two of the Valley's local English Renaissance-centric companies present dueling Scots. Coming off of the triumph of their production of Taming of the Shrew, The Parker Bros. Game, I wished that the first round of the battle would be a saucy one, but unfortunately The Shakespeare Theatre's version of The Scottish Play is simply curs-ed. Wes Martin's production is slain by tedious direction, plodding pacing, interminable set changes, supporting actors who mumble the Bard's beautiful words, and leads who are audible, but ineffective.
Mr. Martin has forgone the intimacy of stage-placed audiences for the cavernous auditorium of Cactus High School, a move that was necessitated by the always wonderful David Barker's well-choreographed, but haltingly performed fight direction. The battle and fight scenes are engaging, but there are not enough of them to balance the enormous gulf that was left between actors and the sparse Sunday matinee audience, most of whom ventured only as close as the sixth or seventh row. Even worse, Mr. Martin has let his actors crawl their way through the intervening scenes, and allowed the kind of diction one would expect from sub-amateurs from many of his supporting cast. Even the Weird Sisters, who are miked, are still difficult to understand. I found myself turning to my companion and questioning each line, a necessity as Mr. Martin's extensive and odd cutting made all of them that much more important to get the gist of the play. Those who are thinking of seeing this Macbeth as their first introduction, be warned; even those who have seen it countless times were confused.
In supporting roles, only Michael Sherwin as young heir to the throne, Malcolm, Tom D'Vorak in his dual roles as Porter and Doctor, and some of the time, John Michael Slook as foe MacDuff, distinguished themselves through voice and performance. The rest were either too busy garbling their lines or acting awfully (or, in the case of Richard Hardt, doing both) to bear a mention.
Mr. Martin also handcuffed the ordinarily sensuous and brash Robyn Allen, tapped to play one of the greatest female roles in English Drama, Lady Macbeth. A perfect example of how ineffectual she became was established during her wonderful "unsex me" speech, which was done with all of the passion of a chipmunk in heat. With nowhere to rise, her fall into madness becomes insignificant.
As the evil Macbeth, Tony Stirpe certainly speaks his speeches trippingly on the tongue, but seems capable of only two levels: fierce or crazed. Besides being too young for the role, his is a performance of much sound and fury, signifying nothing. While he does have flashes of the brashness that leads Macbeth to his tragedy, there is never enough time to bring this across, and his transition from emboldened usurper to murderer to victim of his own guilt is handled awkwardly, dropping each of these personas like tossing off an unnecessary garment.
The deathknell of this performance, though, comes in the form of Mr. Hardt's enormous and unwieldy sets. The minutes-long changes, where lumbering, phallic columns are trudged with fearful swaying into a myriad of positions kills whatever sense of pace can be established. Better is David Vaught's lighting, which expresses moods better than most actors can. Solid, too, are Selina Vega & Peggy Oels' costumes, which are mostly true to period, and fitting of their characters.
I have nothing but great respect for Mr. Martin, who has been doing a worthy job with limited resources. His first productions have been impressive, and we can only hope that this is a hiccup that will be righted in their next production, the rarely produced Pericles.
Production Details:
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
The Shakespeare Theatre
Cactus High School, Phoenix
(602) 272-0931
January 6th - 23rd, 2000