That Scottish Play
Oct. 24th, 2012 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidLast week I ushered for a matinee performance of That Scottish Play (Shakespeare) put on by ASP in the Chevalier Theater in Medford Square. I hadn't been there before, hadn't even realized there was a theater there. It's huge (seating available numbers in the low four digits), so the set designers made it smaller by having airy hangings along the front of the balcony, effectively limiting the audience space to a couple hundred of the seats closest to the stage.
The show was set post-WWI, partly because there's a player piano under the stage that the director used as inspiration, though in the end, it wasn't able to be moved onto the stage. (It also dovetails rather nicely with the person the Chevalier Theater is named after, a pioneering naval aviator in WWI, who not only saved a number of lives, but also the first to land a plane on an aircraft carrier, 90 years ago.) Costumes and set were of that period; the military dress and the old stretcher were the most memorable reminders for me, in addition to the music. The most versatile part of the set was a moveable staircase, leading to different rooms when at different parts of the stage; the balusters were decorated to make it feel more of a piece with the rest of the set. Interestingly, the witches were dressed in long black dresses and headgear rather reminiscent of translucent cornettes, which lead to much thought about their role.
The play was done with ten actors, so many had more than one role (and there wasn't a Third Murderer, either). Four of them were women, and it was interesting to see which men's roles were played by women, and how: some were just women playing the man's role as written, while in the case of Banquo, the character was changed to be female as well (which, as it turned out, was partly because of what the actor preferred). I was also fascinated to see that one of the witches was played by a man (one might have thought that all female roles would go to females).
About the production itself: it started with a mimed funeral procession for a child (based on the size of the coffin). Though it was never stated explicitly, it felt to me as if this were part of the backstory, the funeral of (one of?) Lady MacBeth's child. This works with one of her later monologues, and gives more of a reason why someone who had presumably managed well enough in society until then might be pushed over the edge, rather than just a naked power grab. Somehow, MacBeth was also much stronger in this show than in others I've seen, not wholly in thrall to his bloodthirsty wife, but in love with a woman whose needs have changed to require darker things from him. The witches were around more than just during their lines, sometimes behind a scrim along the back of the stage, and other times at the doors, when they opened with red light behind, rather than no light, as they escorted the just-killed on their journey.
As always, I wonder how someone so wholly part of his society really could turn on his king when he'd been treating his vassal so well (just that day becoming Thane of Cawdor!); could he not envision any other path to the witches' prediction coming true? And the side issue of how so many of Banquo's issue could become king when Duncan's son is there to take the throne back at the end of the play (emphasizing again either the possibility of another path to kingship, or the witches not having an always-clear scrying glass). Still, it shows the slippery slope that can cascade, and how particularly bad it is when a leader has only one solution in his toolbox, only one view of the situation.
Since it was a matinee (at 10 AM, not early afternoon), the entire audience was two (North Shore) school groups, who were quite well behaved. One stayed for the talk-back session with the actors, which was rather interesting.
The only downside to the experience for me was completely my own fault: I wore some shoes I hadn't worn in ages, and partway through the walk there started having foot pain. Total damage by the time I got home: a regular blister on each foot, and a massive blood blister on the ball of one foot too. Happily, they got to not-painful in a day or two.
The show was set post-WWI, partly because there's a player piano under the stage that the director used as inspiration, though in the end, it wasn't able to be moved onto the stage. (It also dovetails rather nicely with the person the Chevalier Theater is named after, a pioneering naval aviator in WWI, who not only saved a number of lives, but also the first to land a plane on an aircraft carrier, 90 years ago.) Costumes and set were of that period; the military dress and the old stretcher were the most memorable reminders for me, in addition to the music. The most versatile part of the set was a moveable staircase, leading to different rooms when at different parts of the stage; the balusters were decorated to make it feel more of a piece with the rest of the set. Interestingly, the witches were dressed in long black dresses and headgear rather reminiscent of translucent cornettes, which lead to much thought about their role.
The play was done with ten actors, so many had more than one role (and there wasn't a Third Murderer, either). Four of them were women, and it was interesting to see which men's roles were played by women, and how: some were just women playing the man's role as written, while in the case of Banquo, the character was changed to be female as well (which, as it turned out, was partly because of what the actor preferred). I was also fascinated to see that one of the witches was played by a man (one might have thought that all female roles would go to females).
About the production itself: it started with a mimed funeral procession for a child (based on the size of the coffin). Though it was never stated explicitly, it felt to me as if this were part of the backstory, the funeral of (one of?) Lady MacBeth's child. This works with one of her later monologues, and gives more of a reason why someone who had presumably managed well enough in society until then might be pushed over the edge, rather than just a naked power grab. Somehow, MacBeth was also much stronger in this show than in others I've seen, not wholly in thrall to his bloodthirsty wife, but in love with a woman whose needs have changed to require darker things from him. The witches were around more than just during their lines, sometimes behind a scrim along the back of the stage, and other times at the doors, when they opened with red light behind, rather than no light, as they escorted the just-killed on their journey.
As always, I wonder how someone so wholly part of his society really could turn on his king when he'd been treating his vassal so well (just that day becoming Thane of Cawdor!); could he not envision any other path to the witches' prediction coming true? And the side issue of how so many of Banquo's issue could become king when Duncan's son is there to take the throne back at the end of the play (emphasizing again either the possibility of another path to kingship, or the witches not having an always-clear scrying glass). Still, it shows the slippery slope that can cascade, and how particularly bad it is when a leader has only one solution in his toolbox, only one view of the situation.
Since it was a matinee (at 10 AM, not early afternoon), the entire audience was two (North Shore) school groups, who were quite well behaved. One stayed for the talk-back session with the actors, which was rather interesting.
The only downside to the experience for me was completely my own fault: I wore some shoes I hadn't worn in ages, and partway through the walk there started having foot pain. Total damage by the time I got home: a regular blister on each foot, and a massive blood blister on the ball of one foot too. Happily, they got to not-painful in a day or two.