By Susannah Whitman
It’s been roughly 412 years since William Shakespeare’s Macbeth was first performed onstage, and Pinnacle Acting Company’s production in Salt Lake City reminds us that it’s a story that’s as relevant as ever. Shakespeare wrote several plays about tyrants—Richard III and Lear both come to mind as the most famous examples. Shakespeare’s works tend to explore some common major themes; you can create a Venn diagram of the plays that explore romance, suicide, war, and the supernatural. But Macbeth is the only play that explores all of these themes simultaneously. It’s a complex play, one that also explores ideas surrounding gender, fate, duality, and family. Pinnacle Acting Company’s program spoke about the theme of seeds as a metaphor…how they grow, how they’re planted, how they wither. This idea is incorporated into the set design (Roya Burton), with a strip of soil at the front of the stage.
The set as a whole is textured and dramatic. Ragged cloth hangs in banners at the back of the set, illuminated (or sometimes hidden in shadow) through Spencer Brown’s lighting design. Three staircases—moved by the actors throughout the show with dance-like choreography—create each location. There is a general sense of dance in the production. Movement and mask are both used as a tool to enhance the storytelling. Under Alexandra Harbold’s direction, the actors create effective visual tableaus to add to the lines Shakespeare penned 400 years ago.
As the power-hungry Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, both Jared Larkin and Melanie Nelson seem to be unhinged from the beginning of the show—in this production, we don’t see their fall so much as the immediate and inescapable result of their madness. The casting of this production is somewhat “genderbent,” with women playing the traditionally male roles of Malcolm, King Duncan, Banquo, the Porter, and others. Each members of the ensemble played multiple roles, and stand out performances came from Holly Fowers and Joseph Kyle Rogan, who created very separate and distinct characters in each of their roles. Fowers found a sense of fun in the Porter scene (which is the origin of modern-day “knock knock” jokes), and Rogan found humor in his interactions with Macbeth.
Anne Louise Brings is especially passionate in her role as Lady Macduff. Both Suni Gigliotti and Viviane Turman bring a strength and steadiness to their roles, and Gigliotti’s pride as Malcolm is especially memorable. Ali Lente plays both Banquo and the Doctor with a sense of naturalism that makes her performance believable and moving. Sean Hunter’s work as Macduff is powerful, especially in the scene when he learns of the loss of his family. And young Cooper Rushton does well as little Fleance and the young Macduff.
One of the strongest aspects of Pinnacle’s production of Macbeth is its design. In addition to a creative and versatile set, with interesting lighting design, Sam Allen’s tribal and dramatic sound design grows in intensity as the plot thickens and the stakes get higher. Andrea Davenport’s costumes hint at medieval garb, but have a modern feel, and incorporate layers than can be removed and added to signify character changes. The design of the production as a whole is cohesive and effective in telling a story that remains a warning to all those who watch it.
In 400 years, the ingredients to create a tyrant remain the same: fear, pride, a willingness to disregard the lives of others. At first, Macbeth expresses reluctance to kill in order to become a ruler, saying “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir.” But between the urging of his wife, the words of the witches, and his own insecurities, he eventually grows to be “in blood stepped so far, that…returning were as tedious as go o’er.”
Most of us are not in danger of becoming power-hungry tyrants of Scotland. And most of us are not willing to kill in order to reach the top. But Macbeth forces us to ask ourselves two questions: what are we willing to do for power? And what do we do when we see others cruelly pushing others aside to reach for it themselves? The themes of power and greed within Shakespeare’s play still resonate with us today, whether in the worlds of business or politics, or any other organization we’re a part of. Macbeth reminds us to be “full of the milk of human kindness,” so as not to fall as he did.
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Content advisory: Some Shakespearean violence
Pinnacle Acting Company presents Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Courage Theatre, Westminster College, 1700 S 1300 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84105
Contact: 801-810-5793
June 14-16, 22-23, 29-30 7:30 PM, Matinee June 30 2:00 PM
Tickets available online or at the door $18 Adults, $15 Senior/Student (w/valid ID), $15 Matinee, $13 Groups of 10+
Pinnacle Acting Company Facebook Page
Macbeth Facebook event
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