MY KINGDOM FOR A FOLDING TABLE
Is it an unwritten rule that all outdoor amphitheaters must be located directly on flight paths? If the GreenStage-sponsored Seattle Outdoor Theatre Festival (SOTF), held this past weekend in Capitol Hill’s Volunteer Park, is any indication, than the answer is unquestionably yes.
A curious class system exacerbates the unfortunate sound of jets headed to and from SeaTac. Those tech-savvy, well-established companies, such as Seattle Shakespeare Company are able to combat the din via an outdoor amplification system. Touring companies of more modest means, such as Last Leaf Productions, are left to fend for themselves. At times, they shout soliloquies at the top of their lungs. At others, they reconcile themselves to the fact that no one can hear them. What harm could hometown-ers Seattle Shakes suffer if their public address system were made available to the less fortunate away team from Monroe, Washington? Watching both companies perform back-to-back is akin to watching your ukulele-playing Aunt open for the Rolling Stones. Isn’t SOTF supposed to be about egalitarianism?
Strangely, none of the companies performing in SOTF utilize Volunteer Park’s purpose-built amphitheatre. That large structure with the high brick walls designed to reflect sound back to the audience, a little something that the Greeks dreamed up a few thousand years ago? Has it been condemned? Instead, all of the SOTF companies perform on the grass in front of the amphitheatre with—in the case of Last Leaf Productions—a hastily-constructed PVC pipe-and-drape barrier delineating onstage and offstage spaces. This creates a situation where, in full view of the audience, waiting actors lounge in folding chairs on the raised permanent stage while the play proceeds in the grass beneath them. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, indeed.
So, no sound and no stage. How do Shakespeare’s immortal lines bear up when met with these obstacles? Surprisingly well, of course. Minus the airplanes, these conditions bear striking resemblances to the original performance of the Bard’s plays. With all of the lavishly appointed productions of Shakespeare’s works in regional theatres all over this country—such as the Intiman’s enjoyable, yet confused “Romeo and Juliet” (until August 25th)—we forget that these plays originally employed scant costumes, no lights, save the sun, and precious few production values. The cast of Last Leaf Productions’ “Macbeth” perhaps unwittingly embraces these constraints. They wear “Elizabethan” costumes, by Alex Clark and Holy Forbis; jet engines like so many drunken groundlings periodically obscure their speeches, leading the Porter (Gail Wamba), in an inspired moment, to rail at the heavens; in one key scene, the company lacks even a necessary banquet table; and yet their scrappy production still bespeaks all of the pleasures of Shakespeare in the park. It is a beautiful day. Jets are jetting. Children are running about. Babies are crying. What could be better?
In deference to these children running hither and thither, Shakespeare’s bloodiest play has been cut and sanitized for all audiences. Banquo’s murder occurs offstage. His reappearance in the aforementioned banquet scene is likewise bloodless, though Shakespeare’s text explicitly states otherwise. Macduff’s entire clan is dispatched offstage. These edits are prudent, since the assembled families might not enjoy the murder of Macduff’s children, arguably one of Shakespeare’s most brutal scenes. Other choices made by Director Charles Eliot are harder to justify. At the center of the production, Jay Rairigh’s Macbeth appears more fop than fiend. We understand that Lady M (Mary Murfin Bayley) has much to do in convincing her husband to commit regicide, but Macbeth’s ambition also spurs him on. Rairigh displays none. Nor after Duncan’s murder does he conjure much remorse. When called on to be tormented, he is merely irritated. When somber, he cannot conceal a smile.
We marvel, then, at Princes Malcolm and Donalbain, at wise Banquo, and steadfast Macduff that they cannot see Rairigh’s treason. We marvel also at a theatre company as impoverished as it may be not being able to lay hands on a folding table, and relying instead on a complex series of boards and hobby horses that cannot help but collapse at a particularly unfortunate moment. We marvel at Malcolm’s younger brother Donalbain (Scott Maddock) appearing before all the world a full thirty years older than his elder brother Malcolm (Kevin Pugsley). But we do not marvel long. Shakespeare’s shortest play has been shortened even further. Above the airplanes, and the frolicking children, and the picnicking, we hardly notice the less-than-stellar performance of “Macbeth” taking place on the grass in front of us.
MACBETH by William Shakespeare, Directed by Charles Eliot, Last Leaf Productions, Monroe Washington, on tour until August 12th. Woodinville (21 Acres) July 22nd 7pm, Redmond Acts Out (Anderson Park) August 12th 4pm. For more information, see: http://www.lastleaf99.org