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Forget the beach — an outdoor summer evening is an ideal setting for Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” Dark skies, warm air, and sounds of nature place audiences in an eerie ambiance that suits Macbeth’s “seeling night” and Lady Macbeth’s “thick night.” Commonwealth Shakespeare Company takes advantage of this opportunity by bringing the classic tragedy to The Boston Common, complete with blood, smoke, and more blood.
Directed by Steven Maler, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s gripping production of “Macbeth” runs at the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common through August 6. The play follows Macbeth, a thane who becomes king by murdering those in his way with the support of his wife, Lady Macbeth. Maler’s adaptation of “Macbeth” is thrillingly intense. Sometimes, the intensity becomes too much — but the play ultimately succeeds at exciting audiences and exposing the gross nature of violence through daring acting and precise aesthetic choices.
Faran Tahir (Macbeth) and Joanne Kelly (Lady Macbeth) exceed the demands of their challenging roles. Tahir portrays a hard, aggressive Macbeth, and Kelly brings a hot-spirited, vengeful frenzy to Lady Macbeth. Their severity and boldness are clear from the beginning of the play, particularly through the unadulterated fury they bring to the famed “double trust” and “unsex me here” soliloquies.
Tahir’s and Kelly’s sustained, harsh energy establishes the couple as immoral, unrestrained villains without a relatable side, denying audiences an opportunity to understand their emotions and access the full depth of their characters. But this limitation reinforces Maler’s take on “Macbeth,” which presents violence as detestable: If audiences cannot empathize with the Macbeths’ violence, they cannot justify it — they can only disdain it.
In fact, Tahir’s and Kelly’s unwavering energy proves invigorating. Through impassioned physicality and vehement dialogue, they convey fascinatingly shifting power dynamics and palpable sexual tension between the Macbeths. When Lady Macbeth taunts Macbeth, Tahir forcefully grabs her neck and gruffly shouts “prithee, peace.” In other moments, Kelly exudes a compelling fierceness while she crawls over him, yells at him, and slaps him. Tahir and Kelly carry the same vigor when embracing and kissing each other. Engaging and convincing, their riveting stage chemistry electrifies the Macbeths’ relationship and sells the story.
While the high intensity propels “Macbeth” in an ultimately favorable way, it is sometimes overwhelming. With few gentle or calm moments from the lead characters, the play consistently tightens and rarely exhales. Its fervor is exacerbated by frequent sound effects — booming noises, ominous string instrumentals, metallic chain clanking — which are overpowering in a show that is already loud in many other ways.
But “Macbeth” handles this potential issue well: When supporting actors bring softer emotions onstage, they add crucial range to the show. As the Porter, John Kuntz delights the audience with humor and levity in a typically unremarkable scene. In only a few minutes, his grand stage presence and commitment to vocal and physical gags make the Porter one of the most memorable characters. Nael Nacer portrays the hero Macduff’s grief after his family’s death with profound gravity and heartbreaking sincerity, which stresses the importance of his need to “feel it as man.” Maler’s “Macbeth” relies on performances such as these to provide the audience with nuanced emotions needed to connect with the show. Fortunately, Kuntz, Nacer, and other actors fulfill this need masterfully.
“Macbeth” on The Common also benefits from keen aesthetic choices. Notably, exceptional lighting design by Maximo Grano De Oro and Eric Southern vitalize the entire show. For example, their work is essential to the chilling potency of Macbeth’s visions. When Macbeth sees a floating dagger, he stands on a truck with white headlights that flash like blinking eyes. When he sees the ghost of Banquo, bright spotlights separate them from the darkly-lit banquet, emphasizing Macbeth’s fear and isolation. These lighting choices are stunning, and they help the audience understand the plot.
Prominently, color symbolism enhances the story and its artfulness through creative lighting design, scenic design, costume design, and prop selection. Maler’s “Macbeth” associates blue with virtue, red with unnatural phenomena, and white with hell and sin, which stand out against neutral earth tones. The execution is slightly heavy-handed, but it is visually appealing and effective in highlighting the characters’ developments – which, without revealing too much, depict violence as an atrocity instead of a glory, critical to this production’s scrutiny of “blood will have blood.”
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company offers an exhilarating take on a frequently-staged, centuries-old play. Overcoming possible faults, Maler’s production of “Macbeth” is heated, dynamic, and complex; it thrills audiences and powerfully reframes the concept of violence. In a word, “Macbeth” on The Common is intense — but in three words, it’s “bloody, bold, and resolute.”
—Staff writer Vivienne N. Germain can be reached at vivienne.germain@thecrimson.com.
