The Scottish Play

Macbeth – Saltbox Theatre Collective

Macbeth is probably the most accessible of Shakespeare’s tragedies. The action and motivations are straight forward, and once the action gets going, it really doesn’t break until the end of the show. This week, Saltbox Theatre Collective mounts a production of this dark tale of ambition and betrayal, and the results show why this play is still produced so long after it first premiered.

Stephanie Stroud was the standout for me as Lady Macbeth. Due to a choice to rearrange the timeline of the show, which I discuss in more detail below, she gets the first lines of the show. She is a commanding presence and manages to feel like the propulsive force behind the action without reducing Lady Macbeth to a caricature of the evil schemer or Macbeth himself to some henpecked flunky. Instead, her performance speaks of a simmering outrage that she must constantly be at the sidelines of power. Jason Narvy also does a great job in the title role. I think he did a very good job portraying the transition of his character as his ambition curdles inside him.

The production itself is pretty pared down, but it serves the show well. Costumes are modern clothes accented with zippers, layers, and color blocking that evoke military uniforms without being either too literal or too figurative. Props are pretty much limited to weapons. The stage itself is bare. The music underscoring the whole show had the tense, metallic quality that reminded me of HBO’s recent Chernobyl series and its similarly haunting soundtrack. All of it serves to keep the show focused on the action and moving at a pretty solid clip through its 95 minute run time.

The only real critique I have is the choice to move Duncan’s murder from its place in Act II to the start of show, setting the first act as a kind of prologue. At worst, it felt like they didn’t trust the audience to engage the politics and set up in Act I without knowing the murder is coming. At best, it read, at least to me, like an adaptation for the sake of having made an adaptation. For all the die hard Bard fans out there, I think it also robs the scene with the Porter later of some of its effectiveness. His drunken ramblings are a bit of comic relief following the murder, and removed in time from that event, the scene doesn’t land with the same impact. I’ll balance that critique by noting that if I had Stroud’s Lady Macbeth waiting in the wings, I’d want to get her on stage quickly as possible, too.

That’s a comparatively minor complaint though. The production is lean and taut, and the pair of actors at the center are top notch. Trimmed to a run time of just over 90 minutes with no intermission, the show moves quickly but confidently to its tragic end.

Recommended

Presented July 12-August 4 by Saltbox Theatre Collective at Edge Off Broadway Theatre at 1133 W. Catalpa, Chicago.

Tickets can be purchased at sbtcmacbeth.brownpapertickets.com/.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.