A BLOODY GOOD SHOW!
WHEN: September 10 & 11 at 8 PM; September 12 at 2 PM
WHERE: Westminster Arts Center, 449 Franklin Street (corner of Franklin & Fremont Streets), Bloomfield
973.748.9008, ext. 279 or http://www.bloomfield.tix.com/
TICKETS: $20; seniors/students $15
Well, even if you read Macbeth in school (under duress from that wicked teacher), you won’t want to miss the goth version onstage at the Westminster Arts Center in Bloomfield. Performed by the Rogues Company, Vampyre Macbeth doesn’t tinker with the Bard’s language, but their version gives more weight to the witches’ role in Macbeth’s murderous actions by turning them into vampires and having them bite the Macbeth on the neck, causing him to kill King Duncan and anyone else who gets in his way to the throne (just as the witches predicted he would)!
Never mind that no one ever heard of vampires until Bram Stoker’s 19th century novel, Dracula. This rendition plays to our own pop culture fascination with these bloodsuckers: HBO’s True Blood and the Twilight novels and films.
Everyone who has graduated from an American high school knows the plot. Three witches prophesy that a courageous Scottish warrior named Macbeth will become Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and “King hereafter.” The first two predictions are fulfilled in short order, but his hopes for the third are dashed when King Duncan names as heir his young son Malcolm. Egged on by his beautiful spouse, Macbeth takes matters into his own hands, murders Duncan, assumes the throne of Scotland when Malcolm and his brother flee the country and, to cover up the crime, commits subsequent murders, among them the vulnerable family of his nemesis, Macduff. Buoyed by further seemingly auspicious predictions by the witches, Macbeth faces Macduff, and upon learning that he is not “of woman born,” accepts his fate with dignity.
Directed by James Karcher (who also plays Macbeth and who staged the fight scenes), the play moves quickly and inexorably to its terrible (for Macbeth) end. He hasn’t cut much in the way of language, but the actors speak the lines so naturally that one forgets they are iambic pentameter and accept them as the conversation between real people. Karcher’s delivery of his character’s soliloquies sound like someone thinking out loud, instead of the stilted, lofty poetry we remember them to be. His Macbeth is noble and courageous in the beginning and, even though he descends to depravity, we are almost rooting for him at the end. He dies with a sword in his hand, fighting as valiantly as he did in the opening scene. As Banquo, Greg Jolley is terrific; he speaks his lines very easily, albeit a bit too softly. He’s especially spooky in the ghost scene where he moves like a zombie—disjointedly stalking through the auditorium! And Carol Crittenden is a beautiful and sexy Lady M. The chemistry between her and her spouse is palpable; it’s easy to see why he has a hard time denying her her plan.
Max W. McGuire’s Duncan is appropriately pompous and clueless about why anyone (Cawdor I and Macbeth) would rebel against him. Leo Giannopoulis is wonderful as Malcolm—kind of weak in the beginning (after all, Macbeth saves his rear end in a battle) but becoming a master of manipulation in the scene where he tests Macduff’s loyalty. It is he who rights the disorder at the end with a stirring speech to his men. Francesco Nuzzi as Macduff registers the appropriate grief at learning the fate of his family; his expressive eyes telegraph his awful loss.
Julie Jin, Emelie Jeffries and Samantha Xavier Jaikaran, who play the Witches, are a sexy trio who seduce Macbeth with their prophecies. The latter two perform a sinuous dance; they resemble the snakes they really are! Able support is provided by Traci Ford, Arthur Hunking, Bill Karcher, Jason G. Rader, Nino Spallacci and young Ethan Turner.
The staging of Vampyre Macbeth is very simple—just a few benches and tables moved on and off the stage, by the ever-present witches! The music is more rock than Elizabethan; starting the play with “Witchy Woman” is entirely appropriate. Costumes suggested the 11th century, and the lighting was eerie.
Vampyre Macbeth makes the play accessible to all ages. The teens in the opening night audience had a fine time watching the play, and the adults discovered that they actually liked it, much to their surprise (and memories of high school). So grab your teenager, spouse, friends and relatives and come on over to the Westminster Art Center for a new look at The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare.
