Review of The Artistic Home's Macbeth

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Macbeth. It was by William Shakespeare and it was directed by Scott Westerman. It was set 25 years after The Great Water Riots of 2089. I have never seen Macbeth in the future before, and I love it. It was a very different way of experiencing it because you think it will all happen in the future and there will be a new Macbeth. It still has the same plotline, characters, and language. I think this was a great show because it was different from a normal Macbeth but then it still kept the great aspects of the original story.

The weird sisters (Brookelyn Hébert, Jill Oliver, Skye Shrum) were very creepy because they were very threatening and they seemed insane because they would just break into screaming and pounding against whatever was by them (sound design by John Corkill and Alex Monroe). Their costumes (by Misti Bradford) seemed like war garments because they had these camouflage headdresses that they would wear and would make them disappear, but then the actors pretended they couldn't see them but the audience could so you felt like you were in the witches' world. There were all these human-sized holes in the stage (scenic and lighting design by Jake Bray) that had toxic water in them and the witches crawled out of them. When anyone died they fell into the holes and they might have become witches as well. So I think the witches were kind of like the people who had been hit the hardest by the pollution. And when Banquo (Tom Hickey) came back from the dead, instead of just coming back and staring, the witches crawled on top of him and started spitting water on top of his head and he would stare there with water trickling down his face. And I was like, "O my gosh. That is so creepy!" There was also a ghost named Hecate (Allie Long) who is the master of the witches and she had this very long outfit that would project faces of Banquo's descendants who will become kings. I thought they made Hecate super creepy, but not as creepy as the witches, which was a good idea because if it was any creepier everyone would have nightmares.

I think that Lady Macbeth's (Maria Stephens) scene when she came out and was sleepwalking was very scary and kind of depressing. The thing was that she had on more modern day clothes and was carrying a lantern and there was a red light shining on her as she said all these words. And she would just go into these crying fits. And even though she was a terrible person, she was realizing her terrible ways, and it seemed like she regretted them. So you wanted to reach out and help her and say, "I'll help you, Lady Macbeth. It will be ok!" I think that usually Lady Macbeth uses her sexiness to make all these bad things happen, but this Lady Macbeth wasn't just trying to use her sexiness to make Macbeth (John Mossman) do bad things. There were other tactics too, like just acting like a loving wife and just being like, "This is the logical thing to do: killing the king so you'll be king faster. Oh, but then you have to kill Banquo too." And then Macbeth gets carried away with the rest of it.

I think that the character of Macbeth is a very hard one to portray because at the beginning you want him to seem like a nice guy, but then he has to get more and more evil as the show goes on so you basically have to switch characters. He is not a complete jerk at the end because you feel sorry for him because he has lost his favorite thing in the whole world, which is his wife. When Banquo came back from the dead, Macbeth was just so terrified and he was like a crazy person trying not to be crazy when he said, "It is nothing to those who know me." I thought it was super scary when Macbeth killed the two supposed murderers of Duncan. And I was not expecting it and they just screamed and it just happened and it was just so scary. It shows you how evil he is that he just killed innocent people for himself. Usually you don't see him kill them, but in this version you do. I found that terrifying, but it was still very awesome. I also thought it was cool that instead of just using swords in the fights (choreography by David Blixt) like they usually do in Macbeth, Macbeth and Macduff used a chain and would swing it back and forth.

I really loved the porter (Long). I thought that she was hilarious and also very very drunk. She would just get so mad about people knocking at the door and disrupting her sleep. And she talks with MacDuff (Frank Nall) and Ross (Eric Leonard) and I loved that she did not care whatsoever about what was going on with those people's lives. She was just like, I really want to go back to sleep and I really have to pee.

People who would like this show are people who like scary witches, Macbeth in the future, and drunk porters. I think people should definitely definitely go see this show. I really loved the performances and this really awesome take on Macbeth.

Photos: Tim Knight