For the 2021-22 Theater Record:
William Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, The Tragedy of Macbeth, was revived in late April. Sam Gold was the director and apparently intended the production to take on the look of a first-week rehearsal. If that was indeed his goal, he reached it.
Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga assumed the roles of, respectively, the title figure and Lady Macbeth. Intermittently, they appeared to be trying out some of the more tense emotions they would display in a finished production—Negga more so than Craig.
Twelve actors completed the ensemble, several of them emoting somewhat—Paul Lazar as Duncan and the Porter, Grantham Coleman as MacDuff, Amber Gray as Banquo (addressed with the use of she-her-hers pronouns). The rest delivered Shakespeare’s dialog as if still learning their assigned lines. Some seemed amused to be mouthing Shakespeare’s words. More than one of the male performers spoke Shakespeare’s grave iambic pentameters with their hands in their trouser pockets.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★☆☆☆ review here.]
Christine Jones designed the set with its black upstage brick wall on which were many marching black L-shaped pipes. Otherwise, the only furnishings were the occasional table and the occasional chair. A table downstage right was adorned with a bowl meant to serve as a witches cauldron. Other items represented the witches’ brew ingredients. Pete Sarafin was credited with organizing production props.
Suttirat Larlarb designed the costumes, the fanciest for Lady Macbeth, an array of black pieces and some of other tasteful colors for Macbeth. The rest of the cast members wore what could have convincingly passed for their own rehearsal clothes. Jane Cox designed the lighting which served its purpose, although she indulged in more flamboyant effects during the sequence when Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. Sound designer Mikaal Sulaimon collaborated with Jones for that segment. The projection designer was Jeanette Ol-Suk Yew. Gaelynn Lea supplied original music.
Sam Pinkleton was credited as movement director, David S. Leong as violence director. It was unclear which staged the Macbeth-MacDuff battlefield encounter, evidently a production highlight. Perhaps both had a hand in the strenuous mano a mano. (No intimacy director was billed.)
Patrick Daly was the executive producer. The first of the myriad additional producers was Barbara Broccoli of the Broccoli family, producers of the James Bond series for which Craig had only recently completed his final appearance as the beloved spy.
Michael Sexton and Ayanna Thompson were credited as dramaturgy and text consultants. It isn’t specified that they oversaw some of the text departures, but possibly they okayed the Porter’s new first words, which in this production were “Oh, shit.” Not long after that comment, the Porter said, “There’s a shitload of people here.” Sexton and Thompson may have also put the stamp of approval on the rounds of boos cast members chanted early on. Likely, it was not these consultants but director Gold who had Macbeth entering at one moment with a beer can from which he speedily quaffed. Probably, it was also Gold who had one character give others the finger.
Among critical response, one reviewer—okay, this reviewer—called the production “a disgrace” and said, “Classic works don’t need the modern-dress approach that nowadays is a shabby cliché.” He averred, paraphrasing Shakespeare, “Playing the play’s the thing.”
Macbeth opened April 28, 2022 at the Longacre Theater and runs through August 14. Tickets and information: macbethbroadway.com
