Macbeth at HJT

On October 8, 2008 the Harwich Winter Theatre put on a ‘modern’ version of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Director, and actor, James Byrne, took creative license while putting on the play for his fourth time. This time around, Byrne chose to make the play more modern. To do this, he changed the costumes and props from the expected robes, gowns, swords, etc, to modern day army uniforms, hand guns, military knives, and cell phones. His idea was solid, but the outcome was not. Byrne chose to keep the Shakespearean poetry throughout the performance, while only changing a line here and a line there. While the costumes were an effective use of modernizing the play, it was confusing to listen to the actors speak in Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter, while wearing and wielding modern day accessories. In defense of the director, it is highly difficult to change the entire text from the original play to a more understandable language. That would have taken a significant amount of time and unneeded stress, but the least he could have done was change the more confusing lines into less confusing ones. The idea of using new aged military wear, according to the director during the question and answer session, came from the idea that Shakespeare’s plays were not specifically written for any one time period. The costumes were the clothing that people would have around their homes or ones that were easily attainable at the local clothier. While the costume idea was true to Shakespeare’s ideas, the use of the original text took away from the overall modernization of the play.


It wasn’t just the text that took away from the modernization, not in the slightest. It was the set, the props, the movements, the gowns, the candles, the throne, the witches, and the fact that the soldiers were wearing American flags on their uniforms and running around through the mansion of a Scottish king. The set was pure black, and while this conveyed the dark and gloomy mood of the play, took away from the modern ideas. There was no signifying set pieces that stood out as “This is a modern day version of Macbeth, not the original ten hundred’s version.” The set took away completely from not only the modernization, but from the play as a whole. As a first timer to the play, I struggled severely trying to figure out where the scene was taking place each time the scene changed. The only time I truly knew where the characters were, due to the set and only the set, was when the king, whether it was Duncan or Macbeth, was sitting upon the throne. The throne was the only signifying set piece that was on stage. Whenever a character was sitting upon the throne it was clear that the scene was taking place in the throne room, castle, mansion, whatever the director had chosen it to be. The only negative thing about the throne chair, was that it made it seem like the play was back over four hundred years ago. As far as props go, the characters still carried candles, and drank from jeweled goblets. In this day and age, people do not carry around candles when they awake from sleep, nor do they drink from golden cups daily. To make the play really modern, James Byrne could have chosen to have Lady Macbeth grab a flashlight, turn on a small lamp, or even use her cell phone as a means of seeing where she was going. Byrne also could have had the actors drink from wine glasses, beer glasses, anything more modern than a jeweled goblet. Actors could have chosen to walk and act more like they would if they were walking through a supermarket. Instead, they walked around on stage very old style sophisticated. This was done by their steps, long steps and elegant. While they may be in a position of royalty, it seemed a bit off. I would have pictured a modern interpretation of a Shakespearean play, less sophisticated, less over dramatic, and more casual.


The witches are a different story. While the interpretation of the three witches was a personal favorite part to the play, it completely threw everything off. The three witches, in this case the two, one being a schizophrenic, came on stage wearing long black robes. At first I was saying, “wow this is going to be so cool, the withes are in such a perfect costume.” But once the witches finished their opening scene and the other characters came in wearing the army uniforms, I was completely thrown off. It seemed as if the time period jumped from period to period. A real modern version of the play would have changed not just some of the characters costumes, but all of them as well. During the question and answer session, Byrne commented by saying that he wanted the three witches to be portrayed by two actors, one being a witch with two personalities. He wanted to convey the witches like the majority of homeless people with mental issues in this day and age. But the witches did not appear to be homeless, whether they even had a home wasn’t an element included. The problem with the witches, however, was not that they didn’t accurately represent homeless people, but that they didn’t represent anything in our time period. They only represented the original witch portrayal back when Shakespeare first put the play on.


But like I have said, the idea of the witches was one of my favorite elements to the overall production. I have to admit that until I asked the person sitting next to me if one of the actors was playing two witches, I was truly confused. Once I was confirmed, I was able to appreciate and fully understand the idea behind it. The particular reason why this idea was so amazing in my mind wasn’t so much the idea itself but the way that Kristen Stewart performed on stage as the schizophrenic witch. While she was onstage as the witch I couldn’t help but watch in complete awe. The way she was able to go from a senile, crazy, hunched over witch, to a tall standing, sophisticated, and proud witch within a matter of seconds was extraordinary. Getting into character for one role is difficult, but to get into the characters for two roles at the same time is even harder. Kristin Stewart was truly spectacular while play the witch she played. Her presence on stage added so much to the overall brilliance of the Harwich Winter Theater’s production. If all the other characters showed the emotion and skill while on stage as she did the play would have been even better.


Kristin Stewart did more than just be two of the witches. She also played a porter after Macbeth kills Duncan. She was portraying a drunk man that was complaining about the knocking. She had great interaction with the audience, not only with her acting on stage, but by actually going into the audience and calling members names and talking to them. I myself was one of the people she interacted with. She called me an ‘equivocator’ and it was very enjoyable to be interacted with by one of the actors. While interacting with the audience, Kristin Stewart kept character. This added to my enjoyment of the play because, like another member of my theatre class stated, she added comic relief to the play. It was a good break from all the dramatics.


The dramatics resumed as soon as Stewart left stage. When she left, the play continued with its gloomy plot into the further creation of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s character. On topic of Lady Macbeth, the actor who played her, Lisa Canto, also stood out among the others in terms of her acting skills. When she first entered, she was in a fancy gown, wearing high heels, and reading from a piece of paper that was the note Macbeth had left it. If Canto had only appeared in that one scene, her acting skills most definitely would not have been shown. In my opinion, her opening scene was lacking something. It lacked the emotion I felt her character should have had. It wasn’t until her later scenes that I saw the emotion that made her performance spectacular. The way I envisioned Lady Macbeth was another power hungry character that only cared about just that, power. Having not read the play I do not know if Lisa Canto further developed Lady Macbeth’s character. Based on my assumption of Lady Macbeth, Lisa Canto did do a great job at changing the character into more of a human being. She had so much emotion, in contrast to before, after she started dealing with the guilt and regret of being involved in the murder of a good man. When she starts to go insane, I could feel everything her character was supposed to be feeling. I felt it through her voice, her movements, her speeches. As she is on her death bed, Canto is the only person I can watch. She has no speaking parts, she has no action except laying on a bed covered completely by her sheets. While there was a whole scene going on, all I could do was watch the barely living Lady Macbeth. When Macbeth starts sleeping, he has a dream in which the apparitions appear. It is in this scene that Lisa Canto shows that she is an amazing actor. Byrne has her character become the missing third witch, and as Canto does this, I literally had shivers go up my spine. Her performance was extraordinary, full of emotion and talent.
Besides Stewart and Canto there are many other actors that do a really well job with their character and in some cases characters. The list of who did their part well would require me to list the entire cast. Not one person stood out in a negative way. Not even Karen Stewart, the little girl who plays the son of Macduff and one of the witches. She may have been young, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t take away whatsoever from the performance.


What did take away from the overall performance was the lighting. The lighting was really important to the whole play. When a character broke scene to think within their minds, but really talking aloud, a spot light was put on their face and the lights on the other characters on set were dimmed down or completely turned off. There were some cases where it was very confusing to comprehend that the character was talking in their minds, and not with the other characters. One scene in particular that was really a failure was when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth stop their conversation because Duncan and Malcolm have arrived. When they arrive, Macbeth goes into his thought monologue about his plot to kill the king. I was very confused because Lady Macbeth gets up from her seat and leads the visitors into the home. They appear to be standing right behind Macbeth as he is plotting to kill the king that is in the room. The lighting was not clearly focused on Macbeth, so it was hard to distinguish between the two things going on.


Distinguishing between what was going on wasn’t the only thing that was difficult. It was difficult to understand what the actors were saying. It was not that the actors were mumbling, speaking to fast, speaking to slow, or speaking to quietly, it was that I didn’t always know what the meaning behind the Shakespearean text. While I could understand simple things, I could barely understand any long speech given. Because I have had no previous study of Macbeth, I had a disadvantage when it came to comprehending what the actors were saying. The lack of prior knowledge to the play was a difficult thing to deal with. I had to struggle to follow what was going on, and even with the help of the person sitting next to me, I had no clue at some points. I lost a lot of enjoyment during these times. It would have been a lot better if James Byrne had done more modernization of the text then just a couple lines.


Overall, the play was a great success and experience. It may seem that there were many things wrong with the production, but its not that. The criticism I have written is simply that. There was nothing truly wrong with the play, not in the slightest. There were just certain thing s that required more depth, or more analysis. Like I said, the play was a truly wonderful experience. Not only was it my first time seeing and learning about Macbeth, but it was my first time at the Harwich Junior Theater. I highly anticipate the next time I go to see a performance there.