From its bewitching first moments to its inevitable climax, Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s Macbeth took opening night’s audience for an epic ride.
To see the play today is to marvel that a drama written at the dawn of the 17th century could blaze with such psychological insight. The Scottish play famously bristles with treachery, gore, murder, and those irresistible Weird sisters, whose prophecies ignite all the mayhem to come.
Directed by Paul Mullins, the piece casts its spell through the torment of one man, driven to fulfill the destiny foretold by three unearthly creatures.
To become king, Macbeth must eliminate the present King Duncan (Derrick Lee Weeden). Confronting the enormity of that deed, Macbeth hesitates, and into that moment steps the fearless embodiment of his vaulting ambition, his wife Lady Macbeth, played with bravura by Paige Lindsey White.
Once done, the horror of King Duncan’s murder eats away at Macbeth’s fragile psychology. He can barely believe what he’s done. Played with seductive intelligence and mesmerizing vocal work by Dan Donohoe, Macbeth takes advantage of Duncan’s trust to strike him down in his sleep. And immediately regrets the cascade of consequences he cannot undo.
There’s a reason why the play is called Macbeth. Donohoe’s is a riveting performance, turning and twisting with his character’s growing paranoia and expanding bloodlust.
Here is an actor who seems to discover the meaning of the words he speaks, as he speaks them. White’s Lady Macbeth is his match, while wearing her ruthlessness closer to the surface.
She embodies the desire for power. He is the instrument. Macbeth unravels bit by bit, word by indelible word: “O, full of scorpions is my mind…”, until all that’s left of him is “the way to dusty death.” Some productions of this play centralize the Macbeths as a power couple. Others lean into the clashing politics of the day. Mullins knows how to keep his eyes on Dan Donohoe’s devolving opportunist. He gives one of the finest performances I’ve seen on this stage.
In the middle of the first Act, power-hungry Lady Macbeth pits her high ambition against her husband’s equivocation. “Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?” she mocks, taunting him to slaughter their houseguest. A pivotal moment played to the hilt by two actors who are husband and wife offstage, too. Their sexual chemistry adds layers of delicious tension to the murderous actions they plot.
Donohoe reveals the mind of the playwright with every word he speaks. His cadences, inflections, and accents fall in unexpected and revealing ways. The huskiness of his voice feels like calloused fingers worrying pieces of parchment. And White is a masterful foil for her troubled Thane of Cawdor.
Blood continues to spill as Macbeth remembers the witches’ words that Banquo (Mike Ryan) would be the father of kings.
Donohoe’s posture becomes as eloquent as his verbal dexterity. Crumpling in his royal armor, as if the tissue of courage has been knocked out of him, Donohoe turns Macbeth’s thoughts inside out for us to see.
We can practically taste the moment of bitter realization. The prophecy denies the future to Macbeth’s heirs. Aghast he realizes it is for Banquo’s children, “for them the gracious Duncan have I murdered.” Banquo, whose ghost only Macbeth can see, drives the new king even further into hallucinatory madness.
Preceded by the news of Lady Macbeth’s death, the climax rushes toward us. The murdered King Duncan’s young son, Malcolm (a smart and watchable Allie Pratt) has assembled an army in England and before you know it, Birnam Wood has come to Dunsinane, and Macbeth invites his adversary to “Lay on, Macduff!” (High marks to Fight Director Kit Wilder for plenty of believable sword and dagger choreography.)
Kudos to director Mullins, who gives us so much to enjoy. The Weird sisters, Patty Gallagher, Carolyn Ratteray, and Renee Torchio MacDonald, move as a single dreamlike entity. The scene is stunning in which Macbeth tries to grasp the dagger that the witches show him. Also, deft is the freshly murdered Duncan transforming into The Porter and delivering the bawdy stand-up comedy intermezzo. A very funny speech Macbeth delivers to a pair of clueless hired assassins is allowed to play for laughs.
Magic, which intrigued Shakespeare’s reigning King James, perfumes both the play and this production, thanks to opening night’s thumbnail moon, the ominous soundwork designed by Rodolfo Ortega, and the perfect, minimalist costuming by B. Modern, all of which created a seamless cauldron into which we were plunged for 2 2/12 hours. Many fine attending performances by Charlotte Boyce Munson, Chris Cherin, and Will Block added color and texture.
Do not miss this production!
Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare and directed by Paul Mullins. through August 30. santacruzshakespeare.org
