NEW YORK – The sound and fury are back, as one of William Shakespeare’s more difficult characters is raging and reeling across the stage again, sword flashing and hands covered with blood, as he furiously grasps at power — with the inevitable self-destructive result.
Theatre for a New Audience opened their forceful, no-frills, beautifully acted production of "Macbeth" Thursday night at the Duke on 42nd Street.
Simply staged by director Arin Arbus, the language and acting are the focus. Arbus highlights the complexities of the leading characters with a strong cast, led by John Douglas Thompson as Macbeth and Annika Boras as his murderous lady. Together, this doomed pair willingly murders their king and anybody else who might conceivably stand between them and their bloody ambitions.
Thompson plays the title role with the same magnetic brio as his Obie Award-winning performance in TFANA’s "Othello" two seasons ago, which Arbus also directed. Capturing the inherent contradictions within Macbeth, Thompson alternately rages, worries, schemes and blusters, as Macbeth’s trail of dastardly deeds lengthens and his mind gradually unravels.
On the projection-free stage, Thompson stares in palpable horror at unseen ghosts of daggers and murdered friends. By the time his Macbeth wearily delivers the famous soliloquy that begins, "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow," after hearing of his wife’s death and the nearness of his enemies, we’ve been through a myriad of emotions with the superb performance of Thompson.
Boras is an icy, scheming, glamorous Lady Macbeth. Sheathed in a slinky black dress, she coldly directs her husband to perform lethal deeds, participating herself with steely assurance, until her mental collapse later on from guilt. Boras is compelling in her quietly effective mad scene, as Lady Macbeth discovers she can’t quite get rid of that "damned spot" after all.
The cast is uniformly excellent, with notable performances by Albert Jones as Macduff and Graham Winton as Banquo. The three witches are portrayed as filthy men in sackcloth, with long, straggly hair, weirdly unsettling in their stoner-like creepiness.
Designer Julian Crouch has created a nightmarishly dark set, a brooding Dunsinane castle wall and open courtyard, where it seems never to be daylight; a place where "fair is foul and foul is fair" that allows rapid blending of scenes separated by brief blackouts.
Anita Yavich’s wonderful costumes, in grim shades of brown or gray suede and leather, often studded with battle-ready metal, give weight to the schemes and fierce fights that preoccupy the characters.
For a powerful, subtle look at the complexities of "Macbeth," you won’t do better than this TFANA production.
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