by Maria V. Kramer
Daily Lobo
Thunder grumbles over weathered stone battlements.
In the pale, dappled light, three veiled figures emerge from the earth. The noise of a storm continues as the figures work their hideous magic, casting long, black shadows on the walls.
This isn't the latest horror film. "Macbeth," Shakespeare's classic story of war, murder, witchcraft and insanity, has come to the Vortex Theatre.
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Under the direction of veteran actor Chad Brummett, "Macbeth" starts with a bang and doesn't stop. The play is lean and fast-paced, with enough sword fights and on-stage murders to satisfy even the viewers with short attention spans.
The energy of the play culminates in a final battle scene, which was literally heart-poundingly exciting. Characters run in and out from all directions, hacking at each other with bloodstained broadswords. The actors aren't afraid to get loud, filling the small theater with shouts of pain and rage. Brummett uses music and sound effects to enhance the effect, underscoring the battle with a driving
drumbeat.
The cast drives this exhilarating production with energetic, vigorous performances. Samuel Taylor as Macbeth mesmerizes the audience as he stalks around the stage with predatory grace. The grim violence he hides under his smiling facade is frightening in its intensity.
Taylor, a self-described "Shakespeare geek," said Macbeth is a man who knows the difference between right and wrong and chooses to do evil anyway.
"He uses his mind and powers of reason well at the beginning, but at the end of the play, he abandons all thinking,"
Taylor said. "He thinks and reasons well, but he always makes the wrong choice."
Kate Schroeder as Lady
Macbeth is a fitting partner to her fiendishly alluring husband - sexy and feminine, almost cute, but with an iron core. She dominates the stage, even when she does not say a word. Schroeder made Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene enthralling - a portrait of a complete mental breakdown.
Schroeder and Taylor have an electric chemistry at the beginning of the play, making them realistic partners in crime. As the play progresses, we can see the guilt and stress of hiding their deeds break the pair apart, and the pain of their separation adds wonderful depth to the play as a whole.
The supporting actors also did wonders for "Macbeth." Taylor said many of them, playing three or four roles each, were on stage longer than he was.
"The show, in the end, relies on them a lot," he said.
The supporting cast of
"Macbeth" demonstrates amazing versatility. At times, an actor would exit from one scene and come back in the next as a different character - mannerisms and voice completely transformed. Francheska Bardacke, Christy Lopez and Marcia Tippit, for example, changed from soldiers to inhuman witches, to mischievous children, to hard-edged murderers in the blink of an eye.
"Macbeth" is rumored to be the unluckiest play in the English language, so much so that it is a theatrical tradition not to say the name of the play aloud. Fortunately, according to Taylor, there have been no curse-related events in Brummett's
production.
"I kept hearing about actors playing Macbeth who got killed in the last fight scene," Taylor said. "I worry that George Bach (who plays Macduff) is going to lop off my head, but he
never does."
Taylor added that all the actors came down with the flu, which they nicknamed, "the black Macbeth." Perhaps the play is cursed after all.
"Macbeth"
A+
Vortex Theatre
2004 1/2 Central Ave. S.E.
Through April 29
Friday and Saturday
8 p.m.
Sunday
6 p.m.
$12
