Shakespeare One-by-One

In the repertoire of a theatergoer, it's practically mandatory to have seen some Shakespeare. Slowly but surely, I'm attempting to see all the plays on stage. It'll take a lifetime I'm sure, as the stars will have to align with my being near theaters putting on the plays that I have yet to see. I imagine it'll be years before I come across some of them.

I can check Macbeth off the list having just seen an inventive staging of the play, co-directed by Teller of Penn & Teller fame. Teller's Macbeth brings the supernatural to life, so to speak. A bloody ghost appears and disappears. Imagined blood becomes "real" stains on a dress. And a hallucinated dagger shines for all to see. Throw in some scary witches, and lots of bloodletting, and you're in for a gory good time.

But it wasn't just the special effects, nor just the skilled acting and great set design, that made this play grand. What I enjoyed most was the creative use of space. The small stage held a two-floor set, with numerous entrances and exits including stairs off the front of the stage that let actors depart and arrive through the middle aisle in the audience. The entire theater became part of the play as actors roamed the aisles, and on more than one occasion, the characters acknowledged the members of the audience in interesting ways. Not what one would expect in the middle of a bloodbath.

I expect Teller's staging will move on to other venues; if it comes near you, it's one not to miss. I chalk up this performance of Macbeth as one of my all-time favorite Shakespearan stagings. Other favorite tragic performances include Ralph Fienne's brooding portrayal of Hamlet at the Hackney Empire in the mid 1990s (made all the better by having seats in the third or fourth row) and in the same season a riveting Hamlet in the West End, in which Hamlet-gone-mad memorably appears on stage stark naked for a bit.

On the less tragic side, an uproarious Covent Garden production of As You Like It with an all-male cast as Shakespeare intended ranks highest. The Taming of the Shrew in Stratford-upon-Avon, Love's Labour's Lost at the Barbican, a West End staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream and a local Shakespeare company's staging of The Tempest were memorable as well. Except this list means that I have many more Shakespeare plays that I have yet to cross off my list -- including those I've never seen and those few that I think I might have seen but if so the productions weren't inspiring enough to be memorable. Ah well, all's well that ends well.