Macbeth, straight-up

The Theater Project wins by sticking to the letter

By Gibson Fay-LeBlanc

Macbeth plays through April 8 at The Theater Project in Brunswick. Call (207) 729-8584.

SISTERLY ADVICE: Macbeth has a bout with the crazies.

Okay, I admit it. I bow my head in shame. Despite a liberal arts education I’ll be paying off until I’m 53, despite having taught Romeo and Juliet to high schoolers, despite having acted in a traditional production of Othello, I walked into The Theater Project to see Macbeth last Saturday night hoping for something a little different. I hoped to see Shakespeare’s tragic Thane as Al Gore and Lady Macbeth as a hyper-ambitious Tipper clad in a power suit, or maybe Macbeth as the general-cum-dictator of a small Central American nation embroiled in the drug trade.

Maybe it was just a mood. Or those sea scallops I ate for dinner. Perhaps it’s the influence of the glut of modern interpretations of Shakespeare on film in the last several years. We have had everything from a fascist Richard III in 1940s Britain, to Romeo as a hipster in a surreal near-futuristic Venice Beach, to Hamlet as a young film maker in NYC with a father who rules corporate America. And that doesn’t include the whole Shakespeare-lite genre: all the films and plays that ever so loosely base themselves on the Bard’s work, like Shakespeare in Love and The Compleat Works.

But instead of anything flashy or post-modern that could either be pronounced edgy or used as a verbal dartboard, Director Al Miller of The Theater Project gives the audience a mostly conventional rendering of “the Scottish play,” complete with swords and torches and those lace-up knee boots that put you in the mood of Robin Hood.

And here’s the thing. By making the set and costumes accurately reflect Scotland about 1000 years ago, by not drawing attention to himself with a unique interpretation, Miller keeps the focus on Shakespeare and lets the audience use their own imaginations if they want to draw parallels to the present day.

With cave-like castle walls and authentic Scottish adornments, the production opens eerily with the prophetic chants and ramblings of the three witches, the aptly named Weird Sisters (“Fair is foul and foul is fair”). It is not easy to pull off portraying witches to a 21st-century audience, but, with their ragged dress and eccentric movements, Lee Paige, Morgan Shepard, and Jessica Peck do it well. Miller also positions each of the evil sisters on the fringes of the action at various points in the play, which reminds you of their influence on the events.

Battered from battle and bowing in the shadows before the diminutive King Duncan, the audience meets the worthy warriors Macbeth and Banquo for the first time. As Macbeth, Christopher Price, with biceps revealed, looks like an aging Peter Fonda who still rides a Harley and towers over the other actors. He brings physicality to the character not seen in most portrayals. With this macho take on the Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, it makes it easier to see how Macbeth ascends to the throne with a quick sweep of violence.

Jessica Porter as Lady Macbeth is chilling, as she, hearing of her husband’s victories and plans for the throne, rids herself of all remorse and conscience, then coaches, prods, and goads her backpedaling husband into murdering Duncan in his sleep. Price and Porter also play up the sexual intimacy of Macbeth and his wife in the early going, which makes her charms more believable.

Price remains convincing as Macbeth’s resolve to grab power by the throat weakens and his conscience begins to torture him. As soon as the bloody daggers are in hand and the deed is done, we see how his regret and building paranoia push him into madness, to the horror of the new queen.

Price’s Macbeth, in his fulfillment of the predictions of the Weird Sisters, is reminiscent of Jack Nicholson’s bout with the crazies in The Shining‚ though Shakespeare’s character manages to keep it together in front of his subjects, at first. Eventually, even the steely Lady Macbeth begins to fray around the edges and hate the position she coaxed her husband into grabbing.

On the whole, watching their downfall — expected as it may be — makes for engaging theater, largely because of the strong performances of Price and Porter. Some of the other performances, like Keith Anctil in the role of Prince Malcolm, are wooden and uncharged. The eerie mood of the Weird Sisters is also broken in the second act when they conjure “spirits” that look more like adolescents in funny robes (which is what they are) than ghosts telling Macbeth his fate. These missteps give the show more of a community theater feel, which is fine as long as you have that expectation.

The Theater Project’s Macbeth is the real thing: a dark, compelling portrait of a leader who will do anything for power, knows what his actions will cost him, and then pays for them in spades. Pick a present-day politician and start making comparisons if you like; Al Miller and his cast leave the modernization up to you.

Gibson Fay-LeBlanc can be reached at riverbetweenus@hotmail.com.