My good ticket karma with the Scottish play continues - on three days notice a friend and I were able to get tickets for a Saturday night performance of the formerly-BAM, formerly-Chichester, now-Broadway production of Macbeth, starring the superb and classy Patrick Stewart and the equally superb Kate Fleetwood. I have written previously about how much I liked this production (here), and I was thrilled to have the chance to see it a second time. If you're within range of NYC, it's running through May 24th.
I don't have a lot to add to my previous thoughts, but seeing it a second time I spent less time being bowled over by the production and was able to appreciate details more:
(Production spoilers. Stop here if planning to see.)
We were in Stalinist Russia, not Nazi Germany. Whatever. Similar goose-stepping Reisenthal-worthy rallies etc. I seem to have more visual associations with the Nazis for goose-stepping rallies, but those were definitely Cyrillic letters. My companion was bothered by the disconnect between the Scottish places and names in the play and the Stalinist production design. I'm so used to time/place-shifting Shakespeare that it didn't bother me at all - I actively enjoy seeing how this sort of thing provides new insights into the play. I think I'd find a fully Elizabethan-costumed Macbeth more disconcerting! To me, part of Shakespeare's genius lies in the universality of the plays and their adaptability to different places and times.
In the dance scene, I hadn't caught before that they were using the mop like a Victorian party game - every time they switched partners, a different person was left having to dance with it. Nice touch!
"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow", with Stewart leaning on the gurney holding his dead wife's body, stroking her face. Beautiful.
I must say that I really noticed Scott Handy as Malcolm this time around. Both his self-deprecation scene and his closing "to see us crown'd at Scone!" speech were memorable. The blood-soaked head, however, was a bit too fake.
I was impressed all over again with Michael Feast (as Macduff) and his slow-realized grief at the news of his family's massacre.
Speaking of the massacre, they didn't actually show it, but just before they bring the lights down (so fast it's hard to see), I was 90% sure I saw Stewart himself coming on: Macbeth as an active, personal participant in the murders. I wish they'd lowered the lights a little more slowly!
The rap version of "Double double" speech is growing on me. I was chanting it under my breath afterwards. It does make a pleasant change from the usual contest to see how creepily the witches can recite the ingredient-list.
The pilot's thumb was an entire rotted hand that had apparently been living in the sink for some time. Just saying. (I had binoculars with me, so I could dwell on the gruesome.)
And yes, Stewart really did toss his dagger away in his final fight. Suicide. The way Feast manhandled him into the elevator and (presumably) stabbed him repeatedly, lifting him off the ground each time, was almost sexual. You could practically hear the grunting.
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