“Macbeth” isn’t one of Shakespeare’s so-called “problem plays,” and yet, the vast contradictions and reversals of the central couple often present a problem for those staging it.
Two “Macbeth” productions now running — the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh’s “Macbeth (An Undoing),” at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn, and the Shakespeare Theater Company’s “Macbeth” in Washington — take opposite approaches to the text, particularly in their depictions of Lady Macbeth. The results are two wildly different kinds of tragedies, one more successful than the other.
The project of “Macbeth (An Undoing),” written and directed by Zinnie Harris, is to re-evaluate the female characters in Shakespeare’s tragedy. The play, presented by Theater for a New Audience and the Rose Theater, begins as a loose adaptation of the material: Macbeth, a celebrated soldier fighting on behalf of Scotland, hears a prophecy from three weird sisters that he’ll get two promotions, including one to the throne. The Macbeths then pave their path to power by murdering everyone who could stand in their way.
With the exception of some modern paraphrasing, the unnecessary fan-fiction-esque addition of a romantic affair and a larger showing by the witches — who sometimes break the fourth wall and at others appear as servants — much of the first half of the show follows the original. In the second half, however, the production changes direction; Macbeth is the one who can’t seem to wash the blood off his hands. As he descends into the particular brand of madness usually reserved for Lady Macbeth, she transforms into the king. In fact, those around her begin addressing her as “sir” and “king.” Lady Macbeth, it turns out, has her own history with the witches, whom she sought out for medicine to prevent a miscarriage but neglected to pay when she still lost the child.
“So I am reduced to my infertility after all,” Lady Macbeth says to her husband when he accusingly interrogates her about the miscarriages. The line is one of several that the play offers as a rebuttal to some unclear larger discourse about the gender politics of “Macbeth.” “Unclear” because the ultimate irony (and failure) of “Macbeth (An Undoing)” is that in trying to subvert the gender politics of the original, it actually contradicts itself, making the character arcs and themes largely incoherent. So this Lady Macbeth complains about being characterized by her infertility, and yet the material that most heavily emphasizes her obsessive desire for a child are unique additions to this play not found in Shakespeare’s text.
Playing Lady Macbeth, Nicole Cooper is at her best when she offers a more realistic, matter-of-fact interpretation of the character in the first half of the production. But she and her Macbeth, played by Adam Best, lack chemistry, and the actors can’t negate the fact that instead of expanding the characters, the play’s role reversals flatten them. Shakespeare already built in a reversal between these characters; Macbeth’s early hesitance and caution shifts to untethered resolve, while Lady Macbeth’s early steadfastness shifts to guilt and madness.
In losing the tension between the couple’s seesawing consciences and intentions, “Macbeth (An Undoing)” also loses the context of the play’s great speeches. The famous “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy, originally spoken by Macbeth in a state of grief-turned-apathy after learning of his wife’s death, loses its emotional weight when spoken by Lady Macbeth after she commits a murder.
There is, by the way, a good helping of murder in this version. And the blood flows freely. One character’s death comes with an almost comical deluge, audibly dripping onstage as the dialogue continues. Lady Macbeth, constantly plagued by blood spots, calls for more wardrobe changes than a contestant on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” This kind of ceaseless repetition and constant over-explanation of the themes drags down the pacing of the play and makes for a tiresome experience.
“Macbeth (An Undoing)” ends with the same outcome and same body count, though the unnecessarily convoluted route the play takes, full of ineffective additions and alterations, and absent much of Shakespeare’s poetry, only further emphasizes the missing artistry of the original story.
These creative decisions minimize Cooper’s ability to get the most out of Lady Macbeth, who is perhaps the most coveted Shakespeare role for women as a complex character who already subverts stereotypes about women as lovers, mothers and caretakers.
The very proof is in Indira Varma’s absorbing performance opposite Ralph Fiennes in the production of “Macbeth” that opened on April 12 in D.C. Set in a former soundstage about three miles from the Shakespeare Theater Company’s usual space, this engrossing production draws audiences into a wrecked war zone that is then mirrored in the Macbeth household.
As played by Varma (known for her role on “Game of Thrones”), Lady Macbeth is neither a vessel of unbridled female lust, as is often the case, nor an evil girl-boss. Her performance is built on Lady Macbeth’s earnest, wholesome love for her husband. Even when Lady Macbeth rolls up her sleeves and impatiently grabs the daggers from her husband after his bloody act of treason, there’s a brightness to her affections; she guides Macbeth through the next step of their plot with the soft yet forceful scolding of a mother to her hapless son.
Though the show’s aesthetic is grandiose, and occasionally otherworldly, with climactic lighting design and titillating sound design, the performances are refreshingly grounded. From the onset the director, Simon Godwin (who also directed the electric TV film version of “Romeo and Juliet,” and National Theater Live’s sensual “Antony and Cleopatra,” also starring Fiennes), paints a sophisticated picture of the central couple’s relationship, and their subsequent fall from grace.
Fiennes’s Macbeth fully owns his ambitions, and potential for regicide, but he’s also tense and cautious to the point of neuroticism. He lumbers across the stage with his shoulders hunched, looking like he’s always on the defensive. Macbeth’s ultimate shift is not toward insanity as much as it is to willfulness rooted in his newly acquired power and driven home by male ego.
And when Lady Macbeth goes mad, there’s still some degree of cogency to her condition; Varma’s tone, posture and temperament shift drastically but never lose their connection to the rest of her performance.
By the end, these Macbeths are transformed more significantly and imbued with more humanity than the reconsidered and restyled couple in “Macbeth (An Undoing).” Because even stuck in a plot of warring men, and on stages ruled by men, Shakespeare’s tragic lady can still summon a magic all her own.
Macbeth (An Undoing)
Through May 4 at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Brooklyn; tfana.org. Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes.
Macbeth
Through May 5 at Shakespeare Theater Company, Washington, D.C.; shakespearetheatre.org. Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes.