Theatre Review: Mac Beth Reveals The Power of “Power”
One thing that I always loved about Shakespeare is that he questioned the morality of power or rather its holder. For him, if you cannot keep yourself together then how do you expect to do so a people? Macbeth is a perfect example of this situation, but, to writer and director Erica Schmidt, so are a group of teenage girls. In this Redbull Theater production, a group of schoolgirls gather to perform their own version of the Shakespearean tragedy: Mac Beth.
Playing at the Lucille Lortel Theater until June 9, the 90 minute play is fun, impetuous, bold, surprising, and even feverish in its delivery of one of Shakespeare’s most serious works. Yet, such an approach of Shakespeare should be expected from a group of smart, young girls testing the boundaries of their passions. Macbeth was a play about the power of desire over the mind, and showed that feelings could delude and sicken it. In this society, teenaged girls are often portrayed as pure emotion. Schmidt uses Shakespeare and her all-female cast to reveal the battle between the mind and the hearts’ motives is a universal struggle that can be heightened in the kingdom known as high-school.
Naturally, there is an outlandishness and humor to Mac Beth’s approach of Shakespeare’s language and situations. From dolls to texts, you never lose sight of these adolescents’ youth but you do wonder of their innocence. In an abandoned lot, they go to re-enact the acclaimed tragedy, but some of them have dark, ulterior motives. The perks of having this reimagined version of Macbeth is that you realize it is the story of really powerful adults that never learned to grow up and handle their emotions, which pushed them to test the sentiments of others. This is something a group of teenaged girls would understand, especially as each decides whether they want to lead, own, connect, or isolate from the other.
When you are a young girl, you can feel like a flower struggling to bloom; filled with so much potential for life, but feeling confined by the very stem/ body that holds you. Isabelle Fuhrman as Macbeth and Ismenia Mendes as Lady Macbeth are perfect in showing this dynamic. They bring a heightened, freneticism to their Shakespearean performance that makes the show welcomingly melodramatic. This energy is especially felt when Sophie Kelly Hedrick (Witch 2), Sharlene Cruz (Witch 3), and Annasophia Robb (Witch 1) revel in their role as the prophesying, mystical Weird sisters. Each girl seeps into their character with a childlike wonder and, eventually, a human immersion.
From Lily Santiago as the questioning Macduff to Ayanna Workman as the doomed Banquo, this cast has done something every English teacher dreams; to make Shakespeare accessible and clear. While many either cower or coddle in his sophisticated language, Mac Beth focuses on his themes and why they are eternally universal and relevant to any era within a person’s life. Power does not make you a better human being, but it does reveal whether or not you are a good one. By the end of the rendition, the kids of Mac Beth get an idea of where they stand in the moral spectrum. To Buy Tickets To Mac Beth Click here.
