Great Scot

Trinity's breezy Macbeth

by Bill Rodriguez

MACBETH. By William Shakespeare. Directed by Mark Sutch. With Andy Macdonald, Kerrie Brown, Jay Bragan, Alex Platt, and Andy Gaukel. Trinity Summer Shakespeare Project, at various locations through July 26.

Macbeth is a good play to pump up to 4/4-time and perform in an hour-long version, since its plot has the energy and swirl of an ongoing battle. The downfall of the ambitious Scot is the first presentation of this year's Trinity Summer Shakespeare Project.

I caught Macbeth at Waterplace Park, where it was performed against river strollers and the Providence skyline rather than a stage set. The challenge to tug our attention back from the distractions was well met by the intense Trinity Conservatory troupe and director Mark Sutch, who graduated from the MFA program last year.

This is the historically-based story of a Scottish noble who, with the goading of his wife, gives into opportunity and temptation to wangle a promotion. Victorious in battle, Macbeth (Andy Macdonald) is rewarded with land and honors, but when the king stays overnight at their castle, Lady Macbeth (Kerrie Brown) cajoles her reluctant husband into murdering their guest, pinning the blame on drunken guards and making Macbeth the new king. But heavy lies the crown, between guilt and the slain king's son Malcolm (Andy Gaukel), who fled on the night of the murder and returns with an army for the concluding swordplay.

The play lends itself to condensation, with strong major scenes and confrontations but some weaker minor scenes that may not even have been written by the bard, scholars suggest. I do miss the tear-jerking stretch in the castle of Macduff, whom Macbeth turns on, before Macduff's wife and family are slain. But that is always a pace-slackener, and Alex Platt does a good job suggesting Macduff's imaginings when he hears about the slaughter.

Director Sutch's main device to pull the story together is his use of the "weird sisters," the three witches we and Macbeth meet in the opening scene and who predict subsequent events. Sutch uses the same actors (Miriam Silverman, Lian-Marie Holmes and Aaron C. Andrade) as the thuggish killers who do Macbeth's bidding. As Macbeth instructs the murderers, the director has them break from realism and hiss their lines into Macbeth's face, letting us see them not as Macbeth does but as the witches they secretly are, in this version. The effect is to guide us through the action more clearly than Shakespeare did.

Another scene that shows how much this is a director's play is Macbeth's banquet encounter with the ghost of Banquo (Jay Bragan). The new king has had his old friend and comrade-in-arms murdered to stymie the predictions of the witches; they'd said that while Macbeth would become king, only Banquo's progeny would do likewise. In a novel touch, the murderers/witches enchant Banquo into stabbing himself. At the subsequent banquet, the ghost pops up all over the Waterplace Park amphitheater; and in a concluding triumph of clever staging, if suspect hygiene, Banquo vomits blood into the goblet of Macbeth, who cuts short his toast in horror.

Despite the slack scenes tightened up in this production, this tragedy has always been a crowd-pleaser because of its larger-than-life moments of High Drama. Macbeth sees the dagger before himself (proffered by the witches), its handle toward his hand; when he wants to walk away from their murder plan, Lady Macbeth shames him back into resolve, saying she would dash the brains out of her suckling infant if she had vowed to him to do so. Brown and Macdonald are a convincing couple, she more shrewd than shrew and he retaining enough backbone to have been a fearsome warrior.

This is a no-set, minimum-costume production -- Lady Macbeth is not gowned but wears a camouflage tank-top and has a bayonet strapped to her hip. Of course, there is no lighting to enhance mood. So remaining elements take on greater roles than usual in grabbing our attention and holding it, such as the hard-driving sound design (sound master is Peter Sasha Hurowitz). Craig Handel's brisk fight choreography also helps keep us riveted (there's nothing more distracting than a halting fight to the death). It may not work as well in the confines of a library, but this Macbeth is one I think the playwright would have gotten a kick out of.

Macbeth is being performed in libraries, parks, and other outdoor locations through June 29. A Midsummer Night's Dream also will be presented throughout the state and neighboring Massachusetts, beginning July 7 at Waterplace Park.