Macbeth

The tragedy of Macbeth, if it is to be meaningful, must work on an audience through clear and moving revelation of the stages in the disintegration of Macbeth's character. In any production of the play, the director and cast should consciously direct their full attention to this issue, or they may be tempted to over-exploit the dramatic effects offered by the play, and in so doing lose sight of its central movement.

Although director William Meador seems strongly interested in the psychology of Macbeth's progression from evil to evil, his concept of it is indecisive, and he has not avoided the danger of overemphasizing his effects. The present HDC production suffers seriously as a result. His idea of Macbeth's character seems unclear at the start of the play, and hence the subsequent interpretation is clouded and confusing.

In the lead role, Andre Gregory suffers more from this seeming lack of orientation than from any failure in acting technique. His delivery is generally moving and expressive, and the mannerisms he has assumed for the part are quite acceptable. The heart of the trouble is the suggestion that neither he nor Meador is quite sure what is happening to Macbeth, or why, and as a result the audience cannot be deeply involved in his self-destruction.

Lady Macbeth, too, remains something of an enigma. Barbara Forester plays the part with a good deal of vigor and violence, both of which are appropriate in spots, but not throughout. Her malice and ambition could be more impressive if they were less blatant, and her occasional shrewishness obscures understanding of her subtly poisonous influence upon her husband.

The burden of the play rests on these two; and it is in their failure to consistently force upon the audience the essential horror of their progressive doom, and an understanding of it, that the chief weakness of the production lies.

Their support, while not outstanding, was certainly adequate. Jay Schuchter and Mare Brugnoni, as Banquo and Macduff, are reliable in every instance, and Edgar Walsh handles the role of young Malcolm with remarkable sympathy. Harry Bingham provides a moment of good Shakespearean humor as the porter.

The staging of this production is intended, one gathers, to create much of the mood that should be implicit in the action. Unfortunately--even if it were perfectly executed--it could hardly make up for the deficiencies in the director's conception of the whole. Jordan Jelk's sets are successful in a somber way, but the lighting could have been better used at times, and the music often seemed superfluous. The shabbiness of the costuming seemed to serve no purpose.

Macbeth's ambiguity is the major flaw in this production. A more determined and decisive presentation of the man in any consistent interpretation would probably result in a fine drama without any changes in the case. As it stands, however, the play does not bring its power to a focus.