Let’s address the first thing about the new production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” co-directed by Rob Ashford and Kenneth Branagh: the location. If you’re lucky enough to see the show, which stars Branagh in the title role, you’ll know why I’m bringing this up. The Park Avenue Armory, a massive building taking up an entire block on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is quickly becoming one of the best performance spaces in the city, and its unique qualities greatly enhance this take on “Macbeth.” The play’s force — and if anything can be said about this production, it’s that it’s forceful — would not be as powerful held in any other space, except the battlefields and castle walls in which the drama takes place.
In a recent profile in the New York Times, Branagh, one of the most accomplished Shakespearean actors to ever stomp across the stage, said that his original idea for a new production of “Macbeth” was to place the action in a neon-glow future-world resembling “Blade Runner,” where the characters were fighting for control of a global multimedia company. No matter how odd, Branagh’s initial dystopian sci-fi vision for “Macbeth” makes sense in context. Shakespeare’s tale of powerful and tragic ambition is one of the Bard’s most produced — Ethan Hawke starred in a production at Lincoln Center less than a year ago — and has always been the source of radical interpretation, especially in the cinema. Orion Welles filmed a version in 1948 (just over a decade after he staged his famous “voodoo” production in New York, set in Haiti with an African-American cast), Japanese director Akira Kurosawa made “Throne of Blood” in 1957, influenced by the Noh theater, and Roman Polanski’s 1971 adaptation highlighted the violence of the play.
Instead of setting “Macbeth” in the future, Branagh went in the opposite direction. At first glance, it might seem that the idea was a back-to-basics approach, but that notion disappears quickly upon entering the space. The audience, separated into groups named after the clans that mapped out 11th-century Scotland — I was part of the Cawdor clan — is pushed into the open expanse of the Armory’s main space. Dark and foggy with hooded guards forming a winding path, the audience makes its way toward the stage. Walking on the soft dirt through the mysterious space, it feels like you’ve stepped through the doors and entered another planet.
Then the audience reaches the stage, or, more appropriately, the arena, an open space surrounded by bleachers where attendees sit and gaze down at the actors, who perform on the ground (the set-up resembles a football game or wrestling match). People in the front row are just a few feet from the action, and during some of the most chaotic scenes at a performance earlier this week — especially the opening battle, where men clash swords in the pouring rain — onlookers had to duck to avoid dirt or spit. The experiential approach makes this production of “Macbeth” as daring as any other. At times it feels more like you are in the production, rather than simply watching it.
To match the intensity of the spectacle, the performances needed to be big, but Branagh and the rest of the cast understand that this does not mean erasing subtly. Alex Kingston, in the role of Lady Macbeth, is particularly great at letting a wave of emotions wash over her and conveying it through the twist of her body or the turn of her face. And Branagh, in the title role, matches his physicality — he often slams himself against the walls like a hockey player — with a depth of emotion that is crucial toward making “Macbeth” something more than evil people doing evil things.
Branagh’s new production proves once again that the actor is one of our finest interpreters of Shakespeare — but it goes beyond that. It also opens up the possibilities for theatrical production. This is something completely visionary and new, which is hard to find these days. Large-scale productions are sinking and money is scarce. People don’t want to take risks. They’d rather go with what works, which is understandable. But when the risks pay off, everything else pales in comparison.
