Her traversal of the sleepwalking scene is highly unusual. She brings a good deal of volume and agitation to it; it is piched high. She moves about a lot, at one point with her hands held overhead as though reliving the time she had to carry the murder weapons back to the scene of the crime. And when she mutters those horrendous words, "Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?", she separates the last words and desperately wrings her hands in a vain attempt to loose them from her arms.

This approach to the scene has drawn the fire of some of my colleagues in the daily press. They evidently conceive of somnambulism as always graceful, and of somniloquy as exclusively a lyrical, if not whispered nocturne. Well, this is the customary way of doing the scene. But Miss McKenna's way is valid and convincing too (though she should not have to be told that "Out, damned spot!" requires four syllables, not three). Her critics should remember that one can do very violent things in one's sleep; and that Lady Macbeth's mind has disintegrated and is tormented by a jagged and disordered patchwork of horrible thoughts, echoes, and memories. (Because Lady Macbeth is in an abnormal state, Shakespeare here followed his usual practice of clothing abnormality in prose--even though it meant making her the only one of his great tragic personages whose final speeches are not in verse.) Yes, Miss McKenna knows what she's doing.

She makes one further appearance, in defiance of tradition. When Seyton informs Macbeth of her suicide, Quintero, acquiescing to Robards' request, lets Macbeth exit and re-enter with his dead wife in his arms before delivering his "She should have died hereafter" soliloquy.

The supporting roles in Macbeth are notoriously less fully rounded on paper than those in the other great Shakespearean tragedies, and thus require special efforts for appreciable individualization. In a good many cases the present cast is up to the task.

Particularly impressive are Michael Wager's Malcolm and Lee Richardson's Ross. In his big colloquy with Macduff, Wager speaks with clarity, conviction, and nice rhythm. And, since Malcolm is the last person to speak in the play, it is good to have someone in the role who excels in classical diction. Richardson brings a force and earnestness that make his Thane of Ross the best of the dozen or so I have seen.

Henderson Forsythe is an adequate Banquo, though a little colorless for a man who is supposed to be Macbeth's honorable rival. As Macduff, Roy Poole has a slight vocal problem; but he has a noble manner, and rises to great heights in the moving scene in which he is informed of the slaughter of his family. Duncan is a weak old king, but not so weak as Pat Malone makes him. Barry Macollum is a deeply affecting Physician. William Myers' Lennox needs to smooth out his jerkv delivery.

Eda Reiss Merin, Mary Perrine, and Patricia O'Grady make a really spine-chilling trio of Weird Sisters, though someone slipped up in failing to provide them with the beards that Banquo calls attention to. All three of their scenes are most ingeniously and effectively staged.

With this production, the time has come for a stock-taking of Miss McKenna's stature. No matter how fine the performances given in modern plays by an actress, the accolade of "truly great" is not generally bestowed on her unless she proves she can excel in several of the notable classic roles.

In the few years that Miss McKenna has been seen in this country, she has done a superlative job in two recent plays, Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden and Morton Wishengrad's The Rope Dancers. But she has also recreated an impressive number of classic roles. She has given us a warm Sister Juana and a wonderful Maggie Wylie; and an unmatchably transcendent Saint Joan, which may serve as a yardstick for all future performances by an actress. In Shakespeare, she has now offered us a memorable Hamlet (yes, the title role!), Viola, and Lady Macbeth. And I have not cited her portrayals of other classic roles abroad.

It is now no more than fitting to address her in a paraphrase of Lady Macbeth's own words: "Great human being! worthy woman! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! They acting hath transported us beyond this ignorant present, and we feel now the future in the instant."

All hail, Siobhan McKenna! hail to thee, World's First Lady of the Theatre!