There is a reason that when a college decides to do Shakespeare, it usually picks A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing or Romeo & Juliet. All three plays center around young people acting like young people.
The central characters in Macbeth, however, are not children. They are complex adults with hard life experiences that shape their actions as surely as any magical “fate” that may await them.
That is not to say colleges can’t or shouldn’t do Macbeth. It just means that to do this show requires a highly skilled and almost laser-focused director to help students discover this depth. Unfortunately, the College of Marin’s current production of Macbeth, directed by Erin McBride Africa and running on the Kentfield campus through Oct. 13, lacks that focus and that depth.
If one doesn’t know Macbeth, the plot is straightforward: Driven by power lust, an honorable man slowly unravels into a paranoid tyrant. If it were written today, it would start with “Based on a true story!” But in reality, Shakespeare’s tale of the English throne “saving” Scotland from its usurper king is less history than fairy tale.
As a fairy tale, Macbeth is an excellent choice for design students. Incorporating witches, royalty, ghosts, castles, forests and battles is a fun challenge for designers, and these designers take full advantage of that.
Set design by Huda Al Jamal showcases a skilled designer with a good eye for color and a keen sense of theatricality. Costumes by Pamela Johnson tread the line of “postmodernism” without taking the audience out of the show. Of particular note are the crowns, which looked more like inverted claws than crowns. Their cruel beauty immediately states what type of throne they top.
The sound design by Landers Markwick is beautiful in its dark moodiness and sets the stage as soon as the audience enters. At intermission, however, that sound design, for some reason, incorporates an actor saying lines from other Shakespearean shows, a la Vincent Price. It turns the beautifully sophisticated sound design into Disney’s Haunted Mansion.
As for lights, Peter Q. Parish pulls out all the stops with beautiful multi-color circles of lights. But whether by design or not, the actors are often dark. The problem was so persistent at a recent production that one could not help but wonder if all the lights were functioning.
However, the continuous presentational style of acting undermines the world displayed, almost in spite of the script itself. The pacing was affected, and a minor curse of missed lines compounded the issue. While Grisha Driscoll, in the title role, did fall prey to some of this, he was able to find something magical in the “Tomorrow” speech. This he hit with a depth of feeling and raw vulnerability that almost made the play worse for the glimpse into what it could have been.
While seeing so many missed opportunities can be frustrating, one must remember that allowing artists to experiment and stretch their skills is the point of educational theater. Theater students require audiences. The occasionally disappointing show is a small price to help young artists hone their skills.
‘Macbeth’ runs through Oct. 13 at the James Dunn Theatre at the College of Marin, 835 College Ave., Kentfield. Friday-Saturday, 7:30pm; Sunday, 2pm. Free. Donations welcome. 415.485.9385. pa.marin.edu.
