The Soviet parallel also illuminates Act III, Scene 6, a two-man scene that exists mainly for exposition. Goold turns it into a gulag-style interrogation, with poor befuddled Ross (Tim Treloar), the ultimate power-worshiping toady, terrified and tied to a chair until he blabs all he knows about Malcolm’s whereabouts (the murdered king’s son has fled to the English court, a crucial piece of intel for the usurper Macbeth). These and other scenes remind us that torture and fear are the tools of all ages — from medieval Scotland to the U.S.S.R. to Guantanamo Bay.
Goold’s other extremely effective staging is in the famous banquet scene (Act III, Scene 4), when an increasingly haunted Macbeth sees the just-murdered Banquo’s bloody ghost. Before the apparition, played by Martin Turner, strides onto the dining table, Macbeth is at the height of his tyrannical power, reveling in both petty power plays and his dinner guests’ forced laughter at his feeble jokes, like some egomaniacal CEO and his cowering board.
Banquo’s appearance puts Macbeth off his game, and after the intermission we see the scene as others see it, with Stewart staring at empty air and jabbering to his unseen victim. It’s not the first time we suspect that Macbeth himself may be off his rocker, and that the play may be more about psychological paranoia than about supernatural forces. This hospital could be an insane asylum — another place where tyrants often toss inconvenient political opponents.
Finally, in Act V, Scene 4, Stewart’s fatigue connects with the character’s. Hearing of Lady Macbeth’s death, he delivers the famous “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” soliloquy slowly, as a tired old man regretting life and preparing to accept death — until the soldier in him responds to the battle cry for one last campaign.
All in all, this is an uneven Macbeth. Perhaps not surprisingly, though, it’s received critical raves. It’s likely that critics and audiences are so enamored of Stewart, the once and future Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, that they are overlooking his, and the production’s, shortcomings. But whether you’re playgoing or simply stargazing, you’re likely to find something scary at this Scottish play.
At the Lyceum Theatre, 149 West 45th St., NYC through May 24. Tickets available at telecharge.com.
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