Advertisement

A Matter-of-Fact but Chilling ‘Macbeth’

Share

Taking “Macbeth’s” theme of upwardly mobile sociopaths to heart, form mirrors content in Suzanne Cryer’s intriguingly appropriate staging of the Shakespeare classic at the Matrix Theatre. Ditching the atmospheric moodiness that typically attends the play, Cryer smothers emotional expression with flat delivery pierced by occasional eruptions of heightened intensity.

About the only recognizable passions here are the intertwined lust and ambition of the usurping monarch (Enrico Colantoni) and his cruelly sensuous lady (Anna Gunn).

Even the dilemma that usually defines the play’s moral context--whether Macbeth is inherently corrupt or a loyal soldier brought down by temptation and lust--is rendered largely irrelevant: Colantoni’s Macbeth isn’t good or bad, he’s just plain loony. A fascinating contrast of deadpan voice and twitchy, nervous tics and hand gestures, Macbeth establishes his “strange infirmity” long before the dinner apparition of murdered Banquo’s ghost (ominous Craig Mathers). A slyly subversive coda further situates events in the realm of his fevered ravings.

Advertisement

With impressive versatility, six actors assume multiple roles. Gunn transitions effortlessly from the heartless queen to Macduff’s poignant martyred wife, and elsewhere writhes in the throes of possession to deliver the witches’ prophecies. Gregory Itzin cuts a regal presence as the assassinated king and invests Macduff with clear-sighted realism. John Harrington Bland and Patrick Kerr relate the most horrific deeds with darkly comic lack of affect.

Cryer’s vision of “Macbeth” may be difficult to adjust to, but the cumulative effect of its matter-of-fact brutality proves as unexpectedly chilling as any traditional approach.

*

* “Macbeth,” Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave. This Saturday and Tuesday through March 6, 8 p.m.; this Sunday and March 7, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends March 7. $10 (Sundays, pay what you can). (213) 972-7389. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

Advertisement