Great Scot? - Theater: Will ‘Macbeth,’ the last play of the La Jolla Playhouse season, prove to be a good luck charm for the financially beleaguered theater? The artistic director hopes so.

Des McAnuff, the artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse, identifies with Macbeth.

That’s not to say he has committed any murders in Scotland, or that he has his eyes on a throne. But “Macbeth,” which McAnuff directs for a Sunday-night opening at the Mandell Weiss Theatre, is, by his own admission, one of his favorite plays. He has been reading and rereading it since he was 11, when he was introduced to the story via a Classic comic book.

“To this day, I remember the pose of Macduff standing with his foot over the body of Macbeth,” McAnuff recalled outside the Mandell Weiss.

He can’t say why he has been drawn to that play ever since, but, like a gem that turns to show its different facets, it has presented more sides to explore as he himself has grown, McAnuff said.

“The first time I directed it, I thought of it as a transition from pre-feudal to feudal society,” he said. “I was also interested in the whole notion of what happens to a country when assassinations are unraveling a society. I grew up in the ‘60s, when the Kennedy assassinations hit close to home.

“I suppose, at 37, you have a slightly different reaction than you did at 29. This is a play about two people who love each other profoundly. I think the difference is that I feel more for the couple.”

Six years between productions of “Macbeth” have seen much ground covered for McAnuff professionally as well.

He first directed it for the Stratford (Ontario) Shakespeare Festival in 1983, just before he moved to San Diego to take over the artistic helm at the playhouse. In the ensuing seven seasons, he has directed two playhouse shows on Broadway: “A Walk in the Woods” and “Big River,” for which he won a Tony for best director of a musical.

Under his leadership, the La Jolla Playhouse has become one of the country’s leading regional theaters. Since 1986, however, it has also been accumulating a deficit, leading to a recent public declaration that it will cancel its 1990 season if it can’t raise $500,000 by the end of this year.

McAnuff and the theater’s business manager, Alan Levey, say the financial problems are due in large part to the difficulty in sharing theater space during the school year with UC San Diego. The arrangement means the playhouse has the shortest season and fewest seats per season of any League of Resident Theaters in its category.

Another problem arises in doing shows at the Mandell Weiss and the smaller Warren Theatre, also at UCSD. The playhouse can sell only enough season tickets to fill the 248-seat Warren but some of the plays in the season will be shown at the 492-seat Mandell Weiss. That means the playhouse must rely on separate sales to fill shows at the larger venue.

Although no one is suggesting that the reception of “Macbeth” will make or break the playhouse’s fund-raising drive, this couldn’t be a better time for the theater to have a hit on its hands. “Macbeth,” the final show for the 1989 season, extends the playhouse season into November for the first time--giving the theater a chance to show that San Diego audiences will support the playhouse as more than a summer theater.

If all goes well, this may be the first time since 1986 in which the playhouse ends the season in the black and reduces its standing deficit. That, according to Levey, would be “a milestone.”

Ultimately, however, McAnuff does not want to talk about budgets, which he said will not affect his plans for “Macbeth.” The budget for the show was set at the beginning of the season, so it will be performed, as planned, by 26 actors in the era it was written for, 11th-Century Scotland.

McAnuff just wants to talk about “Macbeth” the play, and about relationships that last, including his marriage to actress Susan Berman. They two have no children, and he said that gives him some insight into the Macbeths.

“This is a play about two people who love each other profoundly and don’t have a child. If you don’t have a child, then the career of one of those people becomes the child. In ‘Macbeth,’ it drives them to actual murder.”

Long-term relationships with professional associates are also important to McAnuff.

John Vickery, who stars as Macbeth, was first hired by McAnuff to play the lead in his play “The Death of Von Richthofen as Witnessed From Earth” in 1980. Vickery had to dye his dark hair blonde for that one.

Since then, McAnuff has directed him in “Henry IV, Part 1” at the Delacorte Theatre in New York, and Vickery has starred in four La Jolla Playhouse productions: “A Mad World, My Masters,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “A Man’s a Man” and “The Sea Gull.”

Both McAnuff and Vickery appreciate the shorthand in communication that comes from working with someone for a long time.

“When you have a relationship, it helps because you have a lot to do in five weeks,” McAnuff said.

Added Vickery: “Over the years, we’ve had several conversations which go, ‘I think,’ ‘You know,’ ‘I know what you mean.’ ”

Both men reject the theatrical notion that “Macbeth” is an unlucky play. The work, often referred to as “the Scottish play” by skittish actors, is supposed to bring bad luck to those who use what is called the “M” word in the theater.

Vickery, who comes from Scottish ancestry, has no problem with saying the word Macbeth in his dressing room, and has a theory on why others do. He figures that, because of all the sword play in “Macbeth,” actors tend to get hurt and so they associate the work with bad luck.

But the playhouse is definitely looking to “Macbeth” as a potential source of good luck.

As part of the special agreement that allows it to use the Mandell Weiss during the school year, the playhouse will be using seven acting students, three designers, two assistant directors and a production assistant from UCSD.

Students will not only be on stage, but in the theater seats. The playhouse is finding a new audience in the UCSD and San Diego State University students whose classes are, for the first time, in full session during the playhouse season, Levey said.

“Our feeling is that it is a good time of year to be operating because the schools are fully operational,” he said. “We see October and November as prime months to be marketing theater. We’ve seen a strong response from the student body in terms of sales of student-priced tickets.”

If sales and support, in the form of contributed income, result in the playhouse producing at this time next year, this may be the first “Macbeth” in history with a happy ending.