Four People. One Hour. Macbeth.

Actress/Adaptor Maya Danks has reduced Shakespeare’s classic Macbeth into a streamlined one hour without intermission. Developed in part by Rebirth Ink, the production of increased brevity makes its way to the small stage of Sunstone Studios for a single weekend’s performance at the end of October. Directed by Linetta Alexander Islam, the show graces the intimacy of the venue with a cast of four: Macbeth (Ken Miller), Lady Macbeth (Guinevere Casper), Banquo (King Hang)  and Macduff (Brielle Richmond.)

​Prophecy. Ambition. Death. It all plays out in a single hour without intermission. Everything glides across the stage quite gracefully. Danks has really cut the script to the quick. The production follows Danks' minimalism in a reasonably deft swiftness. There’s a powerful economy of visuals on a stage that isn’t much deeper or wider than the length of a broadsword. Four seats sit at four corners as the three witches settle-in for the play’s opening. The stage is bathed in black and gold with the occasional flashes of red light when blood is spilled.​

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​Miller plays a very haunted Macbeth. He’s quite shaken for much of the early going. The crown takes over when Macbeth is given power, allowing Miller a chance to slide into something altogether more confident and driven. The truncated script doesn't allow Miller much time to make the character arc feel natural, but he manages quite a believable transformation in a single hour without intermission.

Casper takes a very appealing approach to Lady M. She’s incredibly sweet and lovable early on…so eager and excited to take power. Caspar is radiant in youthful energy that quickly shows its darker side as Macbeth is reluctant to do what must be done in order to secure the crown. The playful sweetness that Casper lays down initially casts the character in a much more disturbing light than usual. She swiftly slices from sweet to sinister with graceful duplicity. It’s a hauntingly novel approach to one of the most infamous characters  in all of drama. There's cleverly dark comedy in Casper's Lady Macbeth as she tries her best to remain a pleasant, ingratiating hostess in the face of her husband's madness. He's talking to ghosts and she's pleasantly shrugging it off...y'know..."that's just Mac being Mac and don't we all love him for it?" Lady Macbeth is always such a heavy character. It's fun to see her with a range that extends in to disturbingly sweet comedy. 

​Richmond is a powerful presence onstage. In an interesting bit of doubling, she plays the emotional power of the heroic Macduff and the assassin who kills Macduff’s wife and kids. The overwhelming power of Richmond’s Macduff runs the risk of overpowering the scenes that she’s in, but her excitingly magnetic charisma onstage goes a long way towards selling the over-the-top passion. The modulation between the cool heartlessness of the assassin and the intensity of Macduff’s passion balances-out Richmonds energies onstage.​

Hang does an impressive job of supporting the action in a variety of scenes and a variety of roles in addition to that of Macbeth’s comrade in arms Banquo. Hang has a subtle gravitas onstage that adds quite a bit more volume to the cast than a be might expect out of a single person.

​With so much speeding by so quickly, there isn’t a whole lot of time for the mystical darkness to settle-in around the edges of the story. Between the lack of mysticism and a few other decisions that have been made in framing the script and staging the drama, this is a Macbeth that feels much more like psychological horror. The three weird sisters are as abstract as the dagger of the mind that haunts Macbeth. The plot elements tumble across the stage in a strange maelstrom the Danks and Islam have carefully concentrated. The characters are all clearly going through a dark madness, but how much of it all is in their minds? Couldn't they all stop it if they just discussed things like rational people? Without the mystic darkness, all of the darkness lies within. What is real? What lies in the mind? It's a darker edge when it's all within. ​

Sunstone Studios’ and Rebirth Ink’s production of Macbeth has three more performances: October 29th and 30th at 7pm and October 31st at 5 pm. For ticket reservations and more, visit Sunstone Studios online.