Macbeth

Macbeth
BAM Harvey Theater
March 8, 2pm
Orch R28
With Cousin Ann $48.00

Stalinist Russia. A dark, dank military hospital. A wounded soldier is raced in on a stretcher, accompanied by men dressed as commanders of the Russian army. As the man writhes in death throes, and nurses tend to him, he tells the men about the heroics on the field, performed by Macbeth. Macbeth? What? That Scottish guy? Suddenly, the lights change, smoke pours out of a gated door and the nurses, chanting, unveil themselves as the three weird sisters.

When I was in London last October, this was on in the West End, and I saw the reviews that said, 'Best Macbeth ever!' and since coming here, the Royal Shakespeare Company has continued to get raves. Well, for once, a production that lives up to every inch of the hype. Patrick Stewart leads a wonderful cast (notably: Lady M by Kate Fleetwood and Banquo by Martin Turner) in a transplanted version of the Scottish Play set in Stalinist Russia that implements multimedia—music, sound, video juxtaposed against the era costumes and spare set to create an amazing experience that stripped the play down to bare emotion and terror. Banquo's ghost's entrance alone…

The sisters also take on the guise of waitstaff at Macbeth's home, so they are watching him throughout. Their chanting at the start of Act 2 is combined with electronic beats and done in rap and choreography as they animate corpses in body bags, slinking bodily over them and delivering the final prophecy to Macbeth. It sounds cheesy, but it was chilling. And danceable.

This old play is new again, cutting edge, astounding. Although it first glance it is Shakespeare in the Stalinist era, this is actually a play out of time and place. The costumes and songs are Russian, the words are Elizabethan, and the effects are Now. It is a Macbeth from three different points meeting as one.

Patrick Stewart’s fantastic Macbeth was in turns frightened and haunted by what he has become and then light, joking, a dictator with no fears. He gave new life to the speeches, from 'is this a dagger I see before me' and onwards. I loved how he drew out the 'and's in 'tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow' as if he were so fed up with it, here comes yet another tomorrow, leading up to the end where he faces off with MacDuff and surrenders to him, a change from the usual 'fight to the death' ending, this Macbeth, upon hearing that MacDuff was not born of woman, declares 'let the last man say…' drops his knife at MacDuff's feet '…enough.' Then MacDuff drags him into the elevator (yes, an actual elevator), used throughout for creepy smoke-encased entrances and exits, and slaughters him.

When a show is largely wonderful, it can be difficult to know what to say about it without sounding clichéd or silly. There is so much about this show that needs to be experienced rather than read, so I'll say this. It transfers to Broadway April 9. Go. Go. Go.