For the Brady Kids it’s a beautiful morning and it’s gonna be a beautiful day.  And why not?  It’s 1974, they’re movin’ and groovin’ all through the night, and The Partridge Family is getting hot under the collar as the Bradys tread on their turf — a sure sign that they’re worthy competitors.  But in seventies sitcom land one does not simply unseat the royals.  Tracy Partridge, get your triangle … there’s gonna be a musical throw down.

Brady Kids of THE BARDY BUNCH [photo by Katie Settel]

Welcome to The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady, and if you’ve been here before – welcome back!  In 2011 playwright Stephen Garvey showed Fringe audiences what happens when you take a little bit of The Brady Bunch canon, A little bit of The Partridge Family canon, and handfuls from the Shakespeare buffet and shake them all up together.  The result is one giant molded-salad of puns, quotes and interlocking story lines all set against a vivid avocado and burnt orange background.   “This is one show I wish I could go back and see again,” I’d said in my 2011 Fringe review and now, thanks to the good sense of the theatre gods, my wish came true.

In the hands of Garvey The Bardy Bunch is musical comedy genius, and watching this reboot now playing at the Theatre at St. Clements was like settling in to watch a re-run of a beloved show. There was a rush of familiarity coupled with a tingle of expectation at what I’d remember.  I was also excited to see some new scenes added in that only made the show better.

Choreographer Lorna Ventura once again sets up the show with a powerhouse number of both nostalgic and new moves.  Ventura faithfully recreates the Bradys’ iconic twirls as they fly down the road in their makeshift Model T A – so familiar that you are doing the moves along side them in your head. But then quick as a wink the Partridge kids bear down and Ventura swirls the warring kids up in a West-Side-Story rumble that ignited the audience and set the pace for the entire night.

From here on in it’s Brady verses Partridge at every turn with shades of Macbeth, Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet ringing the big bells with a few other Shakespearean references tinkling throughout.  You’ll be tickled regardless of  how extensive your knowledge of the Bard’s body of work.  And rest assured, in case you miss a reference there’s bound to be a show-off  in the audience ready to point it out by laughing loudly at an allusion you might have missed.  That’s okay – there’s plenty of fun to go around and everyone’s there to have a good time.

Director Jay Stern (who also directed Bardy at Fringe 2011)  knows the material well – pulling just the right moments of silliness and fun to warm the fans of the corny TV shows while still understanding when to control the effect of the Shakespearean references in order to have them hit their mark. Stern’s balanced hand ensures that Bardy is a delicate melange rather than a chaotic jumble – something that easily could have happened in the hands of a less perceptive director.  This is most evident when Stern succeeds in making a brutal bloodbath work as it plays out behind a crooning love song – no small feat, but just what the Bard ordered.

The cast is effervescent and fresh – despite simultaneously being spot-on in their retro interpretation.  Shag haircuts and far-out clothes can’t disguise the dynamic exuberance they bring to every number.  With several alums from the original Fringe cast it’s obvious that this show is as fun to perform as it is to watch.  All involved – from Brady Kids to Partridge Family and even Rubin and Alice come together in big numbers like the showstopping “(You’ve Got The)Sunshine In Your Hands/Think I’ll Go For A Walk Outside” arranged by musical director Logan Medland.  Moments like this one – and there were many – had the audience clapping along exuberantly and whooping at the end of the number.

Partridge Kids of THE BARDY BUNCH [photo by Katie Settel]

The entire show is written with a wink to the audience, both a love letter to the shows of childhood as well as a lampooning of the hackneyed, rehashed plots favored by both shows.  But as the Bard himself said in “As You Like It”  - ”I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it”.   Corny?  Yes.  Sappy?  Definitely.  But we like that mid-century modern place that Mr. Brady designed.  We like that Mondrian-painted bus that Mrs. Partridge drove around.  We willingly waste our time in the corridor of 1970s land where Marcia is lovely, Keith Partridge is dreamy, and everything is groovy on a daily basis.  If you didn’t have the chance to spend some time with this bunch a few years ago … now is the time to catch it and willingly waste some time of your own.  You’ll be glad  you did.

~~~

The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady

Written by Stephen Garvey
Directed by Jay Stern

March 20-April 13, 2014

Theatre at St. Clements
423 West 46th Street
New York, NY 10036

CLICK HERE for tickets

Related Posts:

• The Bardy Bunch: The War Of The Families Partridge And Brady (Fringe Festival 2011)
• It’s A Sunshine Day For Stephen Garvey, Writer Of “The Bardy Bunch”
• Macbeth, Aquila Theatre; Macbeth, Epic Theatre Ensemble
• The Knocking Within: 4 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (Times Square International Theater Festival 2012)
• Something Wicked (2014 Frigid New York Festival)

Anaïs Koivisto’s Something Wicked, produced by the Everyday Inferno Theatre Company as part of this year’s Frigid New York Festival, consists almost entirely of original lines from Shakespeare‘s Macbeth, cropped and re-arranged in deconstructed collage form to explore, in a very modern way, the character and motivations of its notorious anti-heroine, Lady Macbeth. Academically of course, rivers of ink and storms of hot air have already been unleashed in this cause, so Koivisto’s contribution, for all its formal expressiveness and vibrancy, can only hope to stand some ground in an already crowded field. The alignment of character with fate is at the core of classical conceptions of tragedy but, however undeniably effective it is in art, it rankles with contemporary notions of personality development and redemption. Every generation has to find something of worth in the cultural inheritance of the previous in order to sustain an interest. Perhaps this is why the great villains of literature and history continue to demand our attention; we need to understand in a contemporary light what precisely made them tick.

Something Wicked commences at the instance of Lady Macbeth’s death. In the original play this momentous act occurs off stage and is merely a matter of report passed along to an already besieged and desperate Macbeth. Whatever the unsettling impact this unseen demise works on the imagination, for Koivisto it is an unsatisfactory way of finishing with the Lady. And so the action commences from this point and revolves entirely around the character, as she wakes to find herself in some otherworld, visited by the three Weird Sisters, who encircle her like tormenting Furies, recounting her deeds and conjuring scenes from her past. A weakened, bewildered soul, she observes her former steely self, black-eyed with murderous ambition, bloodthirsty in her speech, relentless in her provocation of her husband, and seems appalled. The original character’s abrupt shift from extreme ruthlessness to guilt-laden mental collapse is one of those undying academic topics of debate, but here Koivisto is unabashedly attempting to recast her in a more sympathetic light.

For the purpose the author has devised an ingenious re-ordering of the original lines, recited in over-lapping, echoing delivery by actors representing both the primary figures in the action, and the Lady herself  (there are up to three separate Lady Macbeths on stage at any given time). Dark as it is, Macbeth is arguably one the Bard’s most linguistically rich poetic concoctions and Koivisto’s ear is sensitive to the meter and the music as she arranges one speech followed or over-taken by another. Music and movement seem close to the heart of this production. There is a sense that Koivisto, directing as well as adapting, is getting her actors’ movements to echo the rhythm of the line delivery, as if they are engaged in a formal dance of some complexity. This could be worked on to tighten up composition and co-ordination, but on a blank stage, with just rudimentary flat backdrops, it is a wonderful thing to watch when it flows.

A rich sense of theatricality is at play and Koivisto employs a bold pallet of effects. At one instant of heated drama the scene suddenly shifts from the Macbeth story to present four seated academic types all intoning opposing notions of just why Lady Macbeth behaves the way she does. It is a welcome eruption of  comedy in an otherwise charged account, and the actors don’t miss a beat in the transition. Musical performances too are used to temper proceedings, but whilst they have a lyrical appeal, and one serves to present us with the strange sight of the thane and his wife engaged in a tango, they could be enfolded more smoothly into the action to prevent a drop in pace. The musicianship feels rather basic. In contrast to the production’s formal boldness, the visual style is minimal, but might have benefitted from a fresher approach. The preponderant insistence on black and red feels well worn, if not traditional. The actors are all on point and sound conversant with the Shakespearean language, but there are some moments of under projection, even in such a small auditorium.

“What’s done cannot be undone” is one of the lines frequently repeated here. It seems peculiarly relevant for Koivisto, as to whether she can successfully reveal a new part of her doomed, age old subject. She certainly succeeds in enhancing the tragic aura surrounding the Lady, and if tragedy, finally, is that which can ennoble humanity, then that’s saying much in regard to a figure most usually condemned to being one of theatre’s most notorious villainesses. Villainesses of course have always proven fascinating, and this original experiment in theatre proves no less so.

~~~
Something Wicked
Company: Anais Koivisto & Everyday Inferno Theatre Co.
Directed by: Anais Koivisto

Remaining Performance:
Feb 25, 8:40PM
Mar 01, 2:05PM
Mar 08, 8:25PM

Click HERE for tickets

Running time: 1 h 0 min
Price: $14.00 – $16.00
Seating: General Admission

The Kraine Theater
85 E. 4th Street
New York , New York 10003
2nd and 3rd Ave

Horse Trade Theater Group will present the 8th Annual FRIGID New York Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4^th Street between 2^nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1^st Avenue and Avenue A) February 19-March 9. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling 212-868-4444212-868-4444. 

Related Posts:

• Something Wicked: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2014 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Macbeth, Aquila Theatre; Macbeth, Epic Theatre Ensemble
• Romeo And Juliet, Empirical Rogue Productions
• The Bardy Bunch: The War Of The Families Partridge And Brady (Fringe Festival 2011)
• Punk Grandpa: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

New York City is host to two concurrently running productions of Shakespeare’s Macbeth this Spring: Aquila Theatre‘s presentation at the Gym at Judson (April 18th – May 6th), and Epic Theatre Ensemble‘s interpretation at the 47th Street Theatre (April 20 – May 26th). A stable of many a theatrical company’s portfolio, apart from its matchless, vivid language, Macbeth as drama has much to attract aspiring ensembles, not least the challenge presented in portraying two of Shakespeare’s most unsympathetic lead roles. We watch as Macbeth and his wife are enticed into evil by the lure of power and then, as good stage villains, are punished for their crimes. The trick, however, is in making them into more than stage villains, for in that resides the case for tragedy and its capacity to ennoble human existence. It is a tricky bit of the equation as both of these productions can testify.

Aquila Theatre is devoted to the classics of western theatre, in restating their claim to preeminence as timeless pieces, triumphs of human artistry and culture. As such they tend toward language focused productions that are light on the use of contemporary stagecraft elaborations. For their Macbeth Desiree Sanchez wears both directorial and production designer hats. She is spare in her approach. A minimum of props are deployed in the expansive and lofty space  Judson’s Gym theatre offers. There is an economy and subtlety at work in the way she groups the action about the squared arena. An innovative, momentary introductory prelude scene which highlights a blood-soaked, battle worn Macbeth in one corner, and a bereft Lady Macbeth on bloodied bed sheets following unsuccessful labor in the opposite corner, acts as a startling, punched signature of this director’s suggestion for the fatal couple’s motivations. The Macbeths are traumatized people, destabilized, estranged, in search of a project into which they can pour themselves, erase the past, and reunite. This prelude dispatched in an instant, there is little other tinkering with the body of the play and all unfolds to order.

The performances are vigorous, emotive, well spoken and, most importantly, psychologically grounded. If you have an ear for Shakespeare this is a wonderful production to hear his words delivered eloquently and with conviction. Rebecca Reaney as Lady Mabeth is nuanced and bold, spectacularly benefiting from Peter Meineck‘s well-judged lighting, which is at once lavishly theatrical and self-disciplined. Guy Oliver-Watts, working to uncover an aspect of post traumatic stress disorder in the role of Macbeth, has a more complex part. He is thoroughly convincing, but in so doing projects a weakened, dependent quality in the man who would be king and, strangely, this deflates the character somewhat, puncturing the fullness of the play’s tragic reach. He is doing well what he has been directed to do but herein lies the rub, and a very fine rub it is for the measure of what might be deemed tragic theatre. The rest of the cast are for the most part assured in their roles, with Peter F. Gardiner, (Banquo), James Lavender (Macduff), and Rachel Barrington (Lady Macduff) especially commendable.

Coincidentally the notion that the Macbeths, and especially Lady Macbeth, are grieving former parents, is made central in Epic Theatre’s version of the play. This idea is evident in the presence on stage of a small shrine with a framed photograph of a toddler, to which Lady Macbeth touchingly returns for some of her scenes. Also, it is manifest in the large projected photo image of the Macbeths, tenderly converging about a drowsy infant, which is thrown up on the broken surface of the rear wall. This projection is relentless, hanging like a grey cloud above the proceedings, at once lugubrious and sentimental. Interpretation, with a capital I, is the strategy of this production. Set in a more contemporary world, we are treated to off-stage electronic voices in ear pieces, and a video screen displaying action elsewhere. The Weird Sisters are a heterogeneous mix of sexes and ethnicities, and hang about the stage throughout the action on overhead ladders and walkways, like jaded demi-gods, stonily unmoved by the unfolding drama below. Innovation appears one of director Ron Russell‘s chief concerns with his production. In the banquet scene where a guilty Macbeth is plagued with visions of the murdered Banquo, the bloodied apparition is suddenly encountered in a dance embrace by the newly crowned king. This shift works dramatically, as do some of the other re-imaginings. Richard Easton as Duncan, hailing from the video monitor, is a treat as a telegenic royal talking head, at once hammy and calculating. However, a growing awareness dawns as it becomes plain that Russell as director, engaged with innovation it seems for innovation’s sake, completely loses the plot in the finest sense. This might have been more immediately evident if I had read the production’s publicity notes which describe the play as “a brutal and darkly funny exploration of the banality of evil.” Really? Macbeth? Funny? If the line had been offered by Mel Brooks I might have taken closer note, but otherwise it seems merely, but utterly, wrong-headed. And how wrong-headed becomes dismayingly clear in due course as Russell stokes up moments of sour humor (one of the witches sings her lines in a borrowed tutu as a karaoke turn) and rubbishes any solemnity. It’s as if the idea of theatrical tragedy is unknown to him. The most damaging turn occurs amidst some rapid fire scene shifts toward the conclusion which require one actor to change swiftly between two characters. This is done on stage by the actor (James Wallert) taping and un-taping a fringe of hair to his brow to distinguish between roles. In the duration a cry is heard off stage. Jumping from left to right, Wallert, fringed one moment, un-fringed the next, delivers the news of Lady Macbeth’s death. It is, richly, a Mel Brooks moment, and there was more than one chuckle in the audience.

Can Russell actually hear the language Shakespeare is putting in his characters’ mouths? The evidence is scarce and the actors suffer from the inability to sound as if they mean their words. Who is to blame them if the director has no feeling for the real emotion of the play? Apart from Easton in the role of Duncan, and Julian Rozzell, Jr. (with presence to burn) as one of the witches, everyone seems merely focused on unburdening themselves as rapidly and succinctly as possible of their Shakespearean metre. Russell is not the director who can marry them to their lines. As Macbeth, Ty Jones actually commences the soliloquy – “Is this a dagger I see before me?” – with his back to the audience. No chance here for an actor to convey facially the extremity of the moment. Russell, it seems, is not interested in psychological subtleties (witness the never-changing backdrop projection) merely the chance of creating something different. Well sad to say, something different definitely this way comes, but you’ll be lucky if the pricking you feel is confined to your thumbs.

Related Posts:

• Something Wicked (2014 Frigid New York Festival)
• The Bardy Bunch – Keep On Singing And Dancing All Through The Night
• Something Wicked: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2014 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare, Bama Theatre Company (Fringe Festival 2012)
• Pulp Shakespeare – The Bard Would Be Proud (Fringe Festival 2012)

The Knocking Within

ANIKAI Dance Theater
Texts from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, MacBeth, Titus Andronicus and Othello
Selected and compiled by Wendy Jehlen
Direction, concept: Wendy Jehlen
Choreographer: Wendy Jehlen with Pradhuman Nayak

ANIKAI Dance Theater premieres “The Knocking Within,” a new text-based work looking at insanity and a dysfunctional relationship through texts from three of Shakespeare’s tragedies – Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and Titus Andronicus.
The scenes will not play out in a linear manner, but rather will be woven into each other, so that the effect is of the disorientation of unmitigated mental illness and a relationship out of control, or is it the nightmares of two lovers?

Show Times:

• Tues 1/17 @ 6:00pm
• Fri 1/20 @ 8:30pm
• Sun 1/22 @ 3:00pm

Answers by Wendy Jehlen
Artistic Director
ANIKAI Dance

Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
This is an international festival. What part of the world are you coming from … and will your show tantalize the NYC audience with a taste of your nation’s culture?
Wendy Jehlen:
We are from India and the US, by birth. However, this work, and all ANIKAI works, draws on influences and deep study of traditions from throughout the world. The subjects are also universal – dreaming, the space between waking and sleeping, relationship, love, fear. I believe that our work speaks to that culture of people who do not identify themselves with any one place, but rather with a global community.

Dianna Martin’s Question
Who is the greatest inspiration to you artistically?
Wendy Jehlen: It would be impossible to name just one person. We have both had so many influences and mentors. Much of this piece, believe it or not, was inspired by a few episodes of Radio Lab on NPR.

Geoffrey Paddy Johnson’s Question
What emerged as the greatest challenge during the development of this production?
Wendy Jehlen:Narrowing it down. The texts are so rich, as are the ideas we’ve been wrapping around them. It took us a while to settle into a structure, after which it flowed. I’m sure that we will make changes after this run, which is the premiere. After that we’ll be taking it to Boston, around India, and after that, who knows? The creative process is never over.

Antonio Minino’s Question
You’re in Times Square surrounded by the best Broadway houses and highest selling entertainment in the world. What resources are you utilizing to spread the word about your show and get butts in seats?
Wendy Jehlen: We’ve been using the Internet a lot, emails, Facebook, websites. It was listed in the Times under dance. I’m hoping that there will be curiosity about the breadth of influences and sources for the work, as was expressed in the Times listing. Also, this is a very intimate piece, and performing it for an intimate audience is perfect.
~~~

Related Posts:

• THM Sponsors The Times Square International Theatre Festival
• The Bardy Bunch – Keep On Singing And Dancing All Through The Night
• The Bardy Bunch: The War Of The Families Partridge And Brady (Fringe Festival 2011)
• Punk Grandpa: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• For Body And Light (2014 Frigid New York Festival)

Here’s the story … of The Bardy Bunch: The War Of The Families Partridge And Brady.

It’s 1974 and two families, one Brady, one Partridge are at war.  Their battlefield exists in cancelled sit-com land and their weapons consist of killer dance moves, cut throat ballads and production numbers meant to slay you in the aisles.  Their story is a mash up of well-known Partridge and Brady references retrofitted into such Shakespearean plays as Hamlet, MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet, among others.

The result is everything Fringe has come to be celebrated for: an innovative, enjoyable, hilarious night of theatre written by Stephen Garvey and directed by Jay Stern that isn’t afraid to push the envelope.

Whether you’re a 70s sitcom fan or a passionate follower of the bard, all your favorites are here – beginning with the Brady kids decked out in their all-too-familiar blue and white matching outfits as they sing “We’re gonna keep on, keep on, keep on, keep on dancing all through the night!” The choreography by Lorna Ventura is spot on – something you only realize you know as you actually watch it happen in front of you.  Ahhh, memories.

But it doesn’t all belong to the kids – when Carol Brady (Susan J. Jacks) arrives on the scene she sound so much like Florence Henderson that I heard murmurs in the audience … and same for Shirley Partridge (Michelle Mazza).  So when shades of Lady MacBeth emerge in Carol while her eldest daughter Marcia is being the Juliet to Keith Partridge’s Romeo it all makes perfect sense.

What delights so thoroughly is how faithful each character remains to their Brady/Partridge origins while faithfully moving the Shakespearean plots along.  This story was just waiting to be done.  Thanks to the fantastic team of Garvey and Stern it has now been done perfectly.

The jokes are appropriately corny and garner good-natured groans from the audience. (I’d love to repeat some of them but would hate to spoil the punch of hearing them for the first time).   This show is having a laugh at its own expense and that’s the fun of it.

But don’t expect a simple comedy.  A surprisingly touching song by Jan Brady (Annie Watkins) wearing a Hawaiian lei while sitting on a dunk tank may seem the last thing you’d expect to tug at your heart, but the scene channeling Ophelia was perfectly done, and brought a note of bittersweetness to the play  — before the laughter reappeared.

Music by Logan Medland, arranged by Zach Abramson is spot on, and standouts which bring the entire cast together include “I Woke Up In Love This Morning”.  There’s very little here to complain about, and even at the point where you’re thinking “wait … what’s going on?” there’s a hilarious exposition scene that recaps everything up until that point.  Brilliant.

This is one Fringe show I wish I could go back and see again.  Tomorrow’s show is already sold out so get tickets while you can – you won’t be disappointed!

~~~

The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady
Writer: Stephen Garvey, inspired by “The Brady Bunch,” “The Partridge Family,” and the works of William Shakespeare
Director: Jay Stern
1h 40m  
www.thebardybunch.com
VENUE #9: The Ellen Stewart Theatre @ LA MAMA
Fri 19 @ 9 SOLD OUT
Sun 21 @ 8:45 Wed 24 @ 2

Related Posts:

• The Bardy Bunch – Keep On Singing And Dancing All Through The Night
• It’s A Sunshine Day For Stephen Garvey, Writer Of “The Bardy Bunch”
• Something Wicked (2014 Frigid New York Festival)
• Drowning Ophelia: She Gets On Swimmingly (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Drowning Ophelia: A New Rock Musical – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

Cast of Macbeth (photo by Ben Strothmann)

This may not be a popular theory, but I always felt that if Shakespeare were alive today and writing this Scottish play the plot might very well be the same . . . but the title would be Lady Macbeth and the emphasis would be completely different.  For without the devious, devilish, deliciously deceitful Lady at his side Macbeth would be just another Hamlet, wandering about the castle wondering when his future was ever going to relieve him of his everlasting present.

Director Will Le Vasseur has done two things with Redd Tale Theatre Company’s Macbeth that I applaud him for.  One, he’s “tightly edited” the original Shakespeare in ways that leave the story  in tact while still getting the audience back on their feet before numbness sets in.  However, the bigger triumph lies with point two.  What Le Vasseur has done here – which I have yet to see done in other productions – is give this traditionally male-dominated Shakespearean Tale to the women.  He’s managed to make a Feminist Macbeth.  Now if I could only lobby to get him to change the title . . .

Whether this was intentional or unintentional is hard to say but hardly matters – it works.  This choice can be seen right from the beginning when the three witches (Jodi Mara, Melissa Smith, and Merrie Jane Brackin) begin the play not as haggard old crones but as lovely witches (think original Eastwick – minus the  bad perms).   The status of the witches as an omnipresent supernatural constant is another choice of emphasis that I think is also quite unique in Le Vasseur’s production. Instead of the witches merely being auguries of the future they seem to be participants of the present as well – darting in and out to do what must be done to turn the plot just so.  They are more like faeiries than witches in this way – like a darker version of their midsummer nights dream cousins – pushing and prodding the key players on the stage of their lives so as to make what needs to happen happen.

Of course, this is Macbeth, and it’s not as if Le Vasseur takes total liberties with the script – but he did go ahead and cast Duncan with Maria Silverman (who plays a number of other roles throughout the play as well, including Hecate and Lady Macduff) which was a bold and interesting choice.  Silverman easily maneuvers through her many roles and brings fire and strength to her characters.

Virginia Bartholomew as Lady Macbeth and James Stewart as Macbeth (phot by Ben Strothmann)

However, this production completely elevates to another level the moment Lady Macbeth (Virginia Bartholomew) arrives.  There are actors who are completely comfortable with Shakespearean roles, able to recite the text with the appropriate amount of emotion and umbrage and for the most part, Macbeth‘s ensemble is filled with that type of actor.  Then there are the actors who take the old Shakespearean text and transform it into something captivating – Ms. Bartholomew is that kind of actor.   Bartholomew creates a Lady Macbeth who steals your breath and leaves you on the edge of your seat; though this story may be a familiar one and the lines as recognizable as childhood rhymes there is such an anticipation created around her scenes that it’s almost as if you’re not quite sure what may happen next.  She is so fierce, so determined and so unbridled that it is impossible to imagine anything ever not turning out exactly as she wants.  To see the desire and lust for power in her eyes is to see a woman waiting to be fully born, and frustrated that she can only fulfill her true destiny by constantly propping up her man.

The rest of the cast does a great job of putting the familiar cadence of Macbeth into the matrix of this new supernatural feminist thriller. James Stewart as Macbeth and Collin McConnell as Banquo have their lives turned upside down – transformed (then ruined) by the witches.  Malcolm (Brad Lewandowski) and Donalbain (Michael Komala) are the sons who are acceptable heirs-apparent rather than superlative ones until their father’s death sends them on their own hero’s journey that ends them at the beginning of their story – after the ending of Macbeth’s.

And the rest … with many members of the cast playing double roles, there often seems to be many more in the cast than there actually are.  Everyone is working together to tell the story of the warring factions of being pushed and pulled where the fates (or in this case the witches and human frailty) would pull them.

Throughout, the talent and expert of the people behind the scenes shine.  Mike Yahn and Alec Barbour  did a great job with fight choreography.  Rebecca Smith -Millstein made the witches’ choreography – specifically when they interact with Lady Macbeth – weave a spell on us all.   Will LeVasseur’s touch was apparent again in the great costumes (modern kilts, tank tops and coordinating sashes)  and set design (especially the phosphorescent witches’ Mandela that was activated in black light).

Shakespeare’s Macbeth maybe one of the world’s great tragedies, but Le Vasseur’s Macbeth is a great success.

~~~

Related Posts:

• The Thrill Of Creation – “Frankenstein With Mary Shelley” | “Gabriel”
• Love Triumphs In This New Adaptation Of “Triumph Of Love”
• MADDY – A Modern Day Medea + The Swan Song = One Great Night of Classic Tales
• The Bardy Bunch – Keep On Singing And Dancing All Through The Night
• Something Wicked (2014 Frigid New York Festival)