15th-century wit
with a Scottish accent: USU's 'Macbeth' is not for lethargic
playgoers
By Brad Plothow
December 4, 2005 | LOGAN
"There's husbandry in heaven, their candles are all
out." Try to decipher the meaning of that sentence,
Shakespearean laypersons. Now, imagine that the aforementioned
phrase was uttered in a Scottish accent.
That's the quandary faced by casual
playgoers who patronize Utah State University's production
of Macbeth.
The play is rife with the Bard's 15th-century
wit, but if you aren't familiar with the basic plot,
then be sure to familiarize yourself beforehand. Otherwise,
you may find yourself struggling to keep up as tongue-rolled
dialogue unravels the story line while bouncing around
the acoustically-tuned walls of USU's Morgan Theatre.
But that's not to say that Shakespeare
novices will twiddle their fingers throughout the three-hour
play. With a superficial understanding of the play,
one can enjoy the visual spectacles and intense themes
that permeate the production.
The "Scottish play," as it is know
by superstitious thespians who believe it to be cursed,
chronicles the scheming and bloody rise to power of
an obscure Scot. A trio of witches prophecies Macbeth's
tyrannical lordship, but Macbeth's ascension becomes
a self-fulfilling prophecy as he murderously removes
all obstacles between him and Scotland 's throne.
USU's theater department literally
sets the stage for this eerie tale with elaborate audio
and visual techniques. The set, which director Lynda
Linford said is the largest ever created for Morgan
Theatre, is the product of five weeks of intensive work
and a summer trip to Scotland for research.
The two-story set serves as a performance
platform, as well as a projection screen. The dark,
sweeping creation takes up the entire stage and even
spills over into the audience on the periphery, where
mock rolling hills melt into figures of distorted, twisted
human bodies.
Linford described the set as "Apocalyptic…earth,
ocean spinning a web of destruction." Appropriate,
considering the play's motif: that man's quest for power
is ultimately corrupting.
The set is chock full of surprises,
as well, from fog bursts to sudden transparencies to
movable parts. And as Brandon Pearson notes, there's
poetry in the details. "Make sure to watch the three
rocks" on the set, said Pearson, who plays Macbeth.
For all its utility and grandeur,
however, the set becomes a cumbersome obstacle at a
few points in the play, as props are fashioned to it
and movable parts slowly move into place. The gargantuan
set plays host to fight scenes (no plastic swords here),
great feasts and comic relief by way of a Monty Python-esque
drunken heckler on a wall (the Holy Grail had nothing
on this drunkard's sock puppet, though).
Keeping with USU theater tradition,
Macbeth features some contemporary nuances in the play,
which is set in A.D. 1066. The actors fight with broadswords
and wear capes, but they also brandish tattoos and leather
jackets as part of the "Punk/Goth Retro" theme.
Pearson, Rebecca Johnson (Lady Macbeth)
and Adam Larsen (Macduff) headline a cast that convincingly
portray the play's high emotion. With such huge line
loads, one would expect a hiccup here and there while
the young thespians rattle off one Shakespearean clause
after another. But the dialogue flows without incident,
and the fight scenes cause the audience to gasp in awe
and wonder how people escape unscathed.
Macbeth's internal struggles match
his bloody rampage, and Pearson's portrayal of Macbeth's
bouts with intense guilt and anguish are not overblown
or phony. Similarly, Larsen's simulated grief when he
discovers his family has been murdered moves one to
mourn with him.
The audio-visual crew must have spent
myriad hours working out the inevitable bugs that accompany
a play that features abrupt lighting changes, sporadic
sound effects and projected motion picture clips. All
the technical dynamics of the play went off on cue and
without a hitch.
It is clear that USU's theater folks
have poured their hearts and souls into their Christmas
production, fine-tuning the technical components and
rehearsing lines until they become second nature. So
it's not too much to ask that the audience pay a little
closer attention, is it?
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