By Stephanie Snyder
Having not touched William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” since sophomore year of high school I had trouble recalling the essence of the Tragedy, but after seeing North Central College’s hauntingly beautiful rendition of the tale the play came flooding back to me.
Macbeth is set in Scotland during the medieval times. It is a tragic tale of one, Macbeth ‘Thane of Glamis’, and how easily influenced he was by the word of the Weird Sisters (three witches) and his wife, Lady Macbeth. He went from Thane to King by manner of taking the life of Duncan ‘King of Scotland’. With an over powering conscious eating away at his being and the evil possessing him after all his terrible deeds, Macbeth is brought to his fatal end by MacDuff ‘Thane of Fife’.
Walking into Meiley-Swallow’s quaint little performing arts theatre, I was instantly captivated by the over-arching branch structure framing the stage and the fog billowing out from the base of the stage floor. I felt as though I had stepped into the age of Shakespeare.
I jumped at the start of the play when they began with the beating of a drum. That unsettling feeling of heart racing stuck with me during the entirety of the play, but let me clarify that this was a good thing. The tragic play called for an unsettling feeling because I was watching a man become consumed by evil, which brought him to his knees at the end.
The performance by every actor on stage was captivating to say the least. Their recitation of each line was full of emotion and character. Not once did I feel as though they were reading the lines off in their head which brought the stage to life and set the ball rolling for their eighteen-act play.
I thought Macbeth ‘played by Senior Cullen Rogers’ and Lady Macbeth ‘played by Senior Savanna Rae’ took on their characters as if that was who they truly were. Their performance was raw and captivating with every exuberant and/or pained word.
Not only were Macbeth and Lady Macbeth a hit but the Weird Sisters, ‘played by Junior Carlye Pillash, Junior Maddie DePorter, and first year Maddie Burke,’ had the audience spooked in their seats. From their tattered costumes to their cringe worthy voices, the three actresses brought to life the eerie personas Shakespeare was trying to captivate in his written words.
If the opportunity arose I would have bought a ticket to every one of the schedule performances this past weekend. The Macbeth cast and crew deserves an on-going round of applause for a flawless performance.
