Macbeth (Lincoln Center) – Location, Tickets, Reviews

Posted on November 22, 2013

Tony Award-winning director Jack O’Brien has filled Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre with the colors of fear – deep blacks, harsh whites and blood reds – to stage Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Like many Shakespeare productions this season, this Macbeth is high on concept. Whirring sets, blinding spotlights, and a ubiquitous pounding score provide a striking and well-designed cinematic feel, but these production values nearly swallow the performers and poetry.

The critics mostly agree, noting that Shakespeare’s three witches – played by the camp trio of Byron Jennings, John Glover and Malcolm Gets – curiously take the spotlight (Ben Brantley of the New York Times ponders why “this Lincoln Center Theater production [of] Macbeth is the story of three Weird — seriously weird — Sisters”  and not the usual “poetic psychological stuff”).

Meanwhile, screen star Ethan Hawke (as the title character) and Anne-Marie Duff (as Lady M) are often drowned out by O’Brien’s noise. We enjoyed Hawke and Duff more than many reviewers, but we agree that the production as a whole isn’t the best. A shame, since Macbeth was always about those moments in the shadows, where the murderous King and his Lady torture each other and themselves – not thunderous cues, lavish pageantry and clowning supporting characters. If you’re looking for Shakespeare’s medieval nightmare, punctured by the witch’s spell and rook’s caw, this version isn’t for you.

There’s got to be a “sound and fury” joke around here somewhere. . .

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