'Macbeth': A Riveting New Take on a Classic

Staged in a small Brookline church with simple lights, Scottish pennants, and a twig pentagram in the background, the Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s newest production, “Macbeth,” is filled with vitality. Its leads cultivate a level of realism that effectively integrates the audience into medieval Scotland: The audience holds its breath when Macbeth does and shivers right alongside Banquo. The production, directed by Dawn Meredith Simmons, runs from Sept. 26 to Nov. 11 at United Parish.

The performance marks the debut of Migdalia Cruz’s verse translation, written for the Oregon Shakespeare festival’s “Play On!” project. The script retains about 80 percent of the original verse, occasionally altering lines to provide clarity to a contemporary audience and promote diverse interpretations and textual accessibility. The understanding of the performance is rooted in the interpretation of the actors, rather than the original words. The translation is largely unnoticable, but there are moments when the translation breaks the narrative tension with contemporary idioms that do not entirely match the original lines.

The play itself centers around the ambitious and tragic Scottish thane Macbeth (Nael Nacer) whose fate is changed forever when he encounters three witches. In this production, they are characterized by sexual energy and move the plot forward by telling him he will be king. Macbeth is corrupted and begins to sink into a path of violence to establish and maintain his rule. He is spurred on by his wife, Lady Macbeth (Paige Clark). After killing King Duncan (Stephen Barkhimer), Macbeth attempts to centralize power through the murder of his friend Banquo (Maurice Parent). Through his actions, he slowly descends into madness.

Nael Nacer is particularly strong as Macbeth, playing him with an organic intensity. The basis of Nacer’s Macbeth is not the moments of heightened emotion or intense monologues — although he carries those well — but the subtlety of his overall performance, which lends his monologues an unprecedented weight and power, reinventing an iconic character in the process. At times, though, the transitions to and from the monologues feel rushed, somewhat taking away from Nacer’s performance.

Paige Clark as Lady Macbeth is equally riveting. As opposed to other productions that portray Lady Macbeth as power hungry and unidimensional, Clark’s character is painfully realistic, with a storied take that lends an unprecedented poignancy to the duo’s eventual downfall. The relationship between the two leads is the heart of this production. The pair spurs each other on, equal and intertwined. Despite the circumstances, love is placed at the forefront of their relationship and emphasized, giving their mutual descent into madness a unique realism and tragedy that other productions of “Macbeth” often neglect.

It’s also worth mentioning the performances of Banquo (Maurice Parent) and Macduff (Ed Hoopman), who ground the play in their characters’ stability, juxtaposing the volatility of Lord and Lady Macbeth. Banquo’s fierce stillness when he posthumously appears to Macbeth in the famous banquet scene is eerie and haunting, and Macduff’s tender, traumatized performance when he learns of the death of his wife and children is one of the most moving scenes of the play.

The strength of the lead actors, however, makes small errors or weaknesses in the production apparent, due to the high caliber of the overall performance. The Shakespearean background and professionalism of the leads shine through, but they are not always buttressed by the supporting cast. The stage combat comes across as almost silly. While the fight scenes are blocked well, the actual motions feel comical, detracting from the import of key moments, such as Macbeth’s death. The double casting also hinders the production at times — the recasting of lead roles is confusing, particularly given the reappearance of deceased characters like Banquo. At times, the audience is left to decipher whether a character has re-appeared to haunt Macbeth or has been recast in a new role. A scene where the witches sing and rap their lines feels deeply atonal to the point of parody, and almost at odds with the overall performance.

In spite of these aberrant moments, this production is a well-constructed look at the humanity of Lord and Lady Macbeth. Elizabeth Cahill’s sound design is ethereal, with a lightness and a cleverness that transports the audience. The parish of Brookline evokes a religious undercurrent throughout the piece and effectively integrates the medieval world into our own. While the high-level of performance makes minor discrepancies more noticeable, the ability to cultivate and maintain the otherworldly realm of Macbeth is remarkable, conveying anxiety and the tumult of medieval life.