It’s at all times thrilling to get a glimpse of the long run, even when that glimpse is considerably murky — because it decidedly is for the character Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Scottish play. Fortunately, that’s not the case with the Shakespeare Theatre Firm Academy’s Summer season Repertory presentation of Macbeth, the place — to evaluate by the performances and the manufacturing — the long run shines vibrant for each the appearing class of 2026 and those that helped develop the talents presently exhibited on STC’s Klein Theatre stage.
Each summer season, newly minted graduates of STC’s classical appearing academy current two, normally contrasting productions because the culminating challenge of their intensive coaching program. This summer season, graduates are presenting Macbeth and Twelfth Night time in repertory, with actors taking roles in each performs. One by no means is aware of what a scholar presentation might provide. On this case, it’s strong, usually standout, appearing; sturdy, imaginative directing; uncommon readability of line supply and interpretation; attention-grabbing choreography, sound, and lighting design; and big bunraku puppets!
STC Academy Director Alec Wild, who additionally directs this manufacturing, grabs our consideration from the very starting and by no means lets up. He visualizes the play’s exposition with an impressively choreographed battle scene by which military-fatigued warriors wield large bamboo poles in martial arts trend. In the meantime, Macbeth’s heroic exploits are recounted in a political briefing room information convention overseen by King Duncan (an appropriately sturdy Anna Marzullo, in a historically male position). The martial choreography, reprised within the climactic battle on the play’s finish, thrills; the information convention (a conceit repeated on the high of the manufacturing’s second act) underscores the truth that it is a story about politics in addition to private ambition, about how and by whom a narrative is informed. (Viewers members could also be reminded of a sure U.S. president and the individuals who headline his information conferences.)
Wild makes a lot of important directorial selections on this tightly framed manufacturing. One is the casting of feminine actors within the historically male roles of Duncan and princes Malcolm and Donalbain (ably performed by Kira Cornell and Sofia Hernandez Morales, respectively). Woman Macbeth is just not the one girl with company on this manufacturing. One other factor Wild does is locate artistic methods to light up Macbeth’s and Woman Macbeth’s psychology. A great instance is in Act 2, Scene 1, when Macbeth (a resolute Michael Girts) thinks he sees a ghostly “dagger of the thoughts” main him towards Duncan’s bedchamber. That is normally completed with numerous particular results, however right here, it’s Woman Macbeth herself (an expressive, highly effective Bridget Campbell) who wields the dagger that “marshalls” her husband to Duncan’s homicide. We all know she has a particular energy over her husband within the play’s early scenes; right here that energy is visualized by means of an ideal metaphor.
Wild additionally finds methods to open out motifs within the play. We see, and never solely hear about, Macbeth’s assumption of the throne of Scotland by means of a pantomime scene the place he and Woman Macbeth are collectively topped. And Wild presents nearer commentary of Woman Macbeth’s psychological disintegration than is discovered in lots of productions (and, some would argue, within the play itself). Cracks in her stony composure develop into obvious as quickly as her husband begins speaking about extra killing. At instances, we see her alone, on the far facet of the stage, in highlight, staring again at Macbeth and the middle of motion. After the disastrous banquet scene, by which Macbeth sees (or thinks he sees) Banquo’s ghost, Campbell’s Woman M hurries again to that lonely outpost to slurp a goblet of wine — something to calm her more and more rattled nerves. The intercourse enchantment and mutual obsession with energy that when held Macbeth and Woman Macbeth collectively has turned to suspicion and even terror. By the point Woman Macbeth reappears within the sleepwalking scene (Act 5, Scene 1, splendidly introduced right here), it’s no shock to search out she’s gone mad. And Campbell brings the identical readability and depth to that portrayal as to the extra collected Woman Macbeth earlier within the play.
In contrast, Michael Girts’ Macbeth is considerably opaque. Regardless of a splendidly clear line supply — a trademark of the whole manufacturing — we don’t at all times see the shifting feelings beneath. To some extent, this inscrutability is constructed into the manufacturing’s characterization of Macbeth. He’s a killer who enjoys an excellent snigger, and who can shadowbox with Banquo’s son Fleance — and seemingly get pleasure from himself — simply moments earlier than setting his murderous henchmen on the boy and his father. In different respects, Girts’ Macbeth retains a way of misplaced innocence and even sympathetic vulnerability, a minimum of till the play’s closing scenes.
The entire baby characters within the play, together with Fleance, are carried out with doll puppets. The knowledge of this, not solely clear at first, turns into obvious within the assault on Macduff’s citadel in Act 4, Scene 2. The acute violence of this scene — the slaughter of youngsters together with adults — is tough to stage and laborious to look at, whereas a number of the dialogue between Woman Macduff and her son, meant to foreshadow near-future occasions, can strike a contemporary viewers as melodramatic. Wild avoids these issues by using puppets, which embody childlike innocence whereas providing the protection of distance. We all know they don’t seem to be actual. However, the killing of puppets — surrogates for youngsters — on this scene is deeply shifting, particularly that of Macduff’s son. He’s manipulated by Julian Cividanes, who performs Macduff himself. As we watch the puppet son in his dying tremors, we can’t assist however surprise what the “father” is considering.
That connection provides emotional energy to the following scene (Act 4, Scene 3), by which Macduff, exiled on the English court docket, learns of the homicide of his spouse and youngsters. It is without doubt one of the strongest sequences within the play and a second for Cividanes to shine, which he does. His grief is palpable, for us in addition to for the opposite characters on stage, and Wild properly provides the second room to breathe. Right here as elsewhere, considerate pacing underscores the emotional tenor of the motion.
Wild additionally employs puppetry for the witches, that are massive bunraku-style puppets with gnarly faces and arms. However, they converse in considerably dulcet tones, reminding us of their peculiar enchantment to Macbeth, not solely as prestidigitators, but additionally — a minimum of on this manufacturing — as seductive sources of feminine energy, like his spouse. Particularly noteworthy is the large puppet of Hecate, principal of the witches, who exhibits Macbeth the long run in a collection of fantastical silhouettes. (The spectacular puppet design is by Ksenya Litvak.)
There may be a lot else to applaud on this manufacturing, together with Minjoo Kim’s gentle design (lightning, silhouettes, again scrim projection), Cidney Forkpah’s navy costuming (with a touch of tartan for the Scots), and Matt Nielson’s atmospheric sound design, which units the emotional tone and shakes us in our seats on the knocking on the gates within the well-known porter scene (Act 2, Scene 3). There, Claire Hilton swaggers, cajoles, and banters with the viewers in a comedic position that straddles the phobia on both facet of it.
If any play seeks to divine the long run, it’s Macbeth. On this tightly run, well-acted, well-designed manufacturing, we all know that future is nice. Congratulations to those that are college students not!
Operating Time: Roughly two and a half hours, together with intermission.
Macbeth, produced by the Shakespeare Theatre Firm Academy, performs July 22, 24, and 25, 2026, on the Klein Theatre, 450 seventh Avenue NW, Washington, DC, in repertory with Twelfth Night time. Tickets ($25; $40 for each Macbeth and Twelfth Night time) can be found on-line.
Macbeth
Directed by Alec Wild
Program notes and credit for the solid and artistic crew are right here.
