Macbeth at Stratford, Ontario

     We left our first play at Stratford this year, MacBeth, with the smell of gunpowder in the air, and Jimi Hendrix wailing out All Along The Watchtower on the speakers. If I had known this ahead of time, I would have predicted the play to be mediocre at best with the real potential for disaster. Happily, it was not so.

Directors and actors seem to have this ned to make a play their own. So, they take a 400 year old play, which has stood on its own merits all that time, and they try to modernize it with costumes and set pieces of our current time. Most of the time, in my most humble opinion, they distract from the play.Whether this my inability to accept the change or the actor’s/director’s inability to carry it off, I do not know. Probably some of each. In this current iteration, the actors are in modern combat attire. They carry assault rifles. There is the sound of artillery and they fire off several explosions on the stage. For this play, at this time, it works.

For all of its political and psychological exploration, Macbeth remains a very martial play. It is set in the context of war. Battles and murders continue throughout. Battle fatigues are at home in this play. All the more as Colm Feore carries the role with force, grace and charm. His portrayal of MacBeth the politician is most especially convincing. He exudes charm and confidence, yet is the manly warrior needed for the battles. Yanna McIntosh is superb as Lady MacBeth. Cruel and conniving with the subtle weaknesses showing that will undo her. She is more than a match for her husband. Let’s face it, these two are the heart of the play, and if they are weak, the others cannot cary the play. Fortunately, the rest of the cast is strong, with Johnstone as MacDuff having a scene that was evocative enough to leave several around me in tears.

For those of you unfamiliar with MacBeth, it has elements in common with an opera or a rock concert by an old favorite. Most in the audience know the great lines. They know when they are coming. Can the singer hit the high note? Will the actor deliver those lines so as to move? The anticipation builds, then the moment comes. This year, there was no disappointment.

“SEYTON
The queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”

PS- One caveat. Perhaps being Canadian, they persistently mispronounced wiredsisters as weirdsisters. Must be the poutine.