Wow, was I surprised with Antaeus's Macbeth! Jessica Kubzansky, who I know as Boston Court's Co-Artistic Director, really hit it out of the park.
I've seen Kubzansky's work before, not just at Boston Court (where I saw her plays, The Children, Futura and Camino Real), but also at other theatres (like when we saw her rendition of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale in Ojai). But this is my favorite of hers.
When you go see a classic such as "The Scottish Play" (*insert eye roll at ridiculous superstition*), there's a lot of baggage and expectation that goes with it - especially when you pride yourself as a Shakespeare scholar and have read, seen, and analyzed the play and its various movie or live performances. If you've formulated a POV on certain things, like the play's mysteries or controversies, you inevitably want to see how the play will tackle those challenges and what risks the director will take.
And I was pleasantly surprised.
If there's anything in this performance that I wasn't a fan of, it was the extra long procession at the beginning - but only because it was a little too long. What procession? you might ask, if you're familiar with the play. The play begins with the Three Witches. Kubzansky, in what I think is a bold move, opens the play with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth mourning the death of their baby.
Kubzansky tackles one of the play's greatest mysteries head on. Macbeth and his never talk about children - living or dead - except for Lady Macbeth's line in act I, scene vii, when she says to Macbeth, "I have given suck, and know/How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me" (I, vii, ll.54-55). Not knowing what to do with this line, other directors just plainly overlook this matter, but Kubzansky gives this weight, opening with the baby's funeral. Throughout the rest of the play, Macbeth and his wife keep harkening back to the baby's death, and it adds so much more weight and depth to the killer couple's motivations and lunacy.
And it only goes uphill from there with masterful performances. Wonderful. Just wonderful.
I've seen Kubzansky's work before, not just at Boston Court (where I saw her plays, The Children, Futura and Camino Real), but also at other theatres (like when we saw her rendition of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale in Ojai). But this is my favorite of hers.
When you go see a classic such as "The Scottish Play" (*insert eye roll at ridiculous superstition*), there's a lot of baggage and expectation that goes with it - especially when you pride yourself as a Shakespeare scholar and have read, seen, and analyzed the play and its various movie or live performances. If you've formulated a POV on certain things, like the play's mysteries or controversies, you inevitably want to see how the play will tackle those challenges and what risks the director will take.
And I was pleasantly surprised.
If there's anything in this performance that I wasn't a fan of, it was the extra long procession at the beginning - but only because it was a little too long. What procession? you might ask, if you're familiar with the play. The play begins with the Three Witches. Kubzansky, in what I think is a bold move, opens the play with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth mourning the death of their baby.
Kubzansky tackles one of the play's greatest mysteries head on. Macbeth and his never talk about children - living or dead - except for Lady Macbeth's line in act I, scene vii, when she says to Macbeth, "I have given suck, and know/How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me" (I, vii, ll.54-55). Not knowing what to do with this line, other directors just plainly overlook this matter, but Kubzansky gives this weight, opening with the baby's funeral. Throughout the rest of the play, Macbeth and his wife keep harkening back to the baby's death, and it adds so much more weight and depth to the killer couple's motivations and lunacy.
And it only goes uphill from there with masterful performances. Wonderful. Just wonderful.
I agree wholeheartedly. The script was amazing. The acting was amazing. The use of the space was amazing.
ReplyDeleteBravo!