Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Erica Schmidt’s gender-bending MAC BETH reframes and truncates the Scottish Play, and it’s fast and furious

• By drediman
• May 22, 2019
• No Comments

Sharlene Cruz, AnnaSophia Robb, and Sophie Kelly-Hedrick in Red Bull Theater’s production “Mac Beth”, Erica Schmidt’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Move over Gary and King Lear, you’re not the only Shakespeare-fueled bloodbath in town. That’s because New York is also currently playing host to Mac Beth, Erica Schmidt’s aggressively dark but hugely entertaining gender-bending reframing of the Bard’s The Scottish Play, which opened Off-Broadway this week at the classic Lucille Lortel Theatre, courtesy of Red Bull Theater (whose previous production of John Webster’s The White Devil was equally violent). Ms. Schmidt’s premise involves students from what I take to be an all-girls prep school, who – in an abandoned lot – re-enact Shakespeare’s oft-performed, pitch-black work. It’s “Mean Girls” meets Shakespearean tragedy, if you will. Glenda Jackson would be proud.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Ms. Schmidt’s reworking of Macbeth was at least in part inspired by Shakespeare’s R&J, Joe Calarco’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, which is similarly set in an all-boys Catholic school. Mac Beth primarily uses a truncated version of Shakespeare’s original text, resulting in a production that runs a fast and furious 90 minutes sans an intermission. Even if the new setting seems just a tad forced onto The Scottish Play, Ms. Schmidt’s framing device more than suggests – rather fascinatingly – a sort of all-girls “Lord of the Flies” scenario, to some rather shocking results (no spoilers here).

Ms. Schmidt also wears the director’s hat for the atmospherically designed production (the set is by Catherine Cornell), which she shapes with a sense of urgency and nonstop physicality that maps nicely to the suffocating downward spiral of Shakespeare’s plot. Across the board, the performances from the show’s band of talented young actresses (most of them play multiple roles) seethe with a wild recklessness that’s both tremendous fun and chilling to watch. Even if some of the acting lacks sufficient shading, I nonetheless thrilled to the full throttle ferocity on display. Now who says Shakespeare has to be boring?

RECOMMENDED

MAC BETH
Off-Broadway, Play
Red Bull Theater
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through June 9