Maretta Zilic, Jonah Smith, and Peter Colburn Photo by Richard Mailand

I am less certain about this season's opener, Macbeth. Open Window has staged William Shakespeare's tragic masterwork with a strong hand, knitting together formidable performances, crisp direction by Joe Hendren that maintains a coherent vision from start to finish, and impressive lighting (by Alex Clark) and sound (by Jeremy Stanbary) that provides sensory embellishment to the narrative, much as a well-tuned orchestra embroiders a distinctive performance by its concerto soloist. I heartily recommend this production–but would be dishonest if I said that I could find much that is redemptive about Macbeth, except perhaps in a cautionary sense.

Of course, the scarcity of redemption in Macbeth is the doing of the playwright, and not Open Window Theatre. I say scarcity of redemption because one could track the young prince Malcolm as experiencing a redemptive shift late in the play, showing a surge of maturity as he assumes the throne of Scotland as rightful heir to his murdered father, the king, Duncan. But Malcom is a relatively minor character in the story. The central characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, reach their bloody ends without a trace of redemption; the major secondary characters, MacDuff and Banquo, embody principles of honor and faith from the start, so have no need for redemption.

Macbeth starts the play off as the Thane of Glamis, a lower rank in the ancient Scottish nobility. He, along with his companion Banquo, has fought bravely in battle against the king's enemies, among them the traitorous Thane of Cawdor. When Duncan hears this report, along with news that the Thane of Cawdor has been killed in battle, he announces that as a reward for his valor, Macbeth will be named as the higher-ranked Thane of Cawdor.

In another part of the woods, Macbeth and Banquo encounter three witches, or as they refer to themselves, "weird sisters," who prophesize that Macbeth will not only become the Thane of Cawdor, but King of Scotland. Their prophesy for Banquo is that, though he will not achieve higher rank, his progeny will be a long line of future kings. After the witches vanish, Macbeth and Banquo laugh at these outrageous notions. However, when Macbeth learns shortly after that, indeed, Duncan has named him as the new Thane of Cawdor, the two men wonder if the witches are not onto something.

Macbeth returns to his castle and shares these prophecies with Lady Macbeth. He is content to wait for events to run their course and, if the second prophecy holds true, in time become king. Lady Macbeth, however, fears that with the king's young son Malcolm named as his heir, they must take matters into their own hands to make the witches' words come to fruition. By insinuating that her husband is less than a man if he fails to act on his own behalf, Lady Macbeth sways him to her side. Thus begins the first of a series of murders, and eventually all-out war as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth alike become savage in pursuit of their ambitions, doing violence to their kingdom as well as to their own psyches. Since the play is known far and wide as a tragedy, it will be no surprise that things end badly for Macbeth, his Lady, and most of the other leading characters.

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's shortest plays. Of the thirty-seven plays attributed to him, only five are shorter, while his other great tragedies–King Lear, Othello, and Hamlet–are among the longest. Macbeth has a straightforward narrative, and Hendren steers the play through its course like an express train, speeding up or slowing down a bit as the contours require, but never coming to a rest (barring one intermission) until reaching its final destination.

Jonah Smith as Macbeth and Maretta Zilic as Lady Macbeth are superbly matched, giving superb performances. Smith begins as a brash, good-humored Macbeth, celebrating his daring on the battlefield with Banquo and scoffing at the weird words and deeds of the witches. We see his shifting countenance as his wife challenges his manhood, his embrace of her ambitions as his own, and the horror he feels after he murders. When he revisits the three witches to learn more from them, Smith conveys a state of mania. His line delivery is impeccable, and his physical bearing on stage is integrated fully with the dialogue. His delivery of the "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" soliloquy–one of the most moving in all of Shakespeare–is spellbinding. Smith's eyes are a great asset to the actor, bright and eager at the start, then acquiring fire until they smolder with glowering rage.

Zilic conveys Lady Macbeth's complete absorption in the ambitions she aims to achieve through her husband, as she has no agency of her own. We can feel her devious nature and her willingness to set all scruples aside to achieve a fate she perceives as an entitlement. Her mad scene–the famous "Out, damned spot!"–is played as a revelation as she begins her descent, down from the height of realized ambition into dark, deep despair. Zilic and Smith interact together like a log and a match, she the source of fire that turns him from inert object to a flaming rod, capable of great destruction. Zilic and Smith appear younger than other Macbeth and Lady Macbeth couples I have seen, making their bloody machinations all the greater an offense, as there is no sense of them having long-waited for opportunity to come their way.

Noah Ratgen gives another stirring performance as MacDuff, expressing his noble bearing from the start and rising, both for the good of Scotland and as vengeance for his personal losses, to great stature as a leader. Peter Colburn is an amiable Banquo, showing the good man's dawning recognition of his friend Macbeth's turn to treachery. J. Antonio Teodoro is excellent as Malcolm, impertinent in his exile as he waits for the right time to strike back, growing into a leader as he observes the heartbreak dealt to MacDuff, and survives the nightmare of battle. The witches, played by Meg Bradley, Kaitlin Klemencic, and Rae Wasson, express a wonderful blend of wickedness and playfulness, and their scenes are staged with the fluidity of a dance, with sound and lighting to underscore their depravity.

Robin McIntyre designed the single set, with the look of an ancient stone-built fortress, containing alcoves, platforms, stairs, and a well that provide the necessary variation among the scenes, all of this space put to exquisite use in Hendren's staging. A. Emily Heaney's costumes seem drawn from different eras, but most notably, bear the look of the Spanish Civil War. They serve effectively to distinguish the hierarchy among characters. Fight director Mason Tyer has staged some of the finest swordplay, and other forms of violent engagement, that I have seen. One can imagine long rehearsals among cast members to bring these scenes so vividly to life.

One flaw in the production that must be pointed out is the difficulty at times in clearly hearing some of the actors. This is true in particular when actors face away from the audience. At other times, they are overshadowed by the thrumming sound design. When Macbeth pays a return visit to the three witches, their pronouncements are issued by monstrous beings in the alcoves, whose voices are amplified with an echoing effect that makes it impossible to make out their words. Fortunately, I know the play well enough to know what they are meant to be saying; my companion, having not encountered Macbeth for several decades, was less fortunate.

That difficulty aside, Open Window's Macbeth gives Shakespeare's work a powerful staging. If, as a tragedy, its aim is to illuminate the inherent dangers facing a tragically flawed character, rather than to show that character's redemptive arc, it nonetheless makes a moral statement that, perhaps, can guide the audience toward their own redemptive moment. Beyond that, it is a masterfully written play and a beautifully mounted production well worth seeing for the abundant artistry on stage.

Macbeth runs through October 30, 2024, at Open Window Theatre, 5300 S Robert Trail, Inver Grove Heights MN. For tickets and information, please call 612-615-1515 or visit openwindowtheatre.org.

Playwright: William Shakespeare; Director: Joe Hendren; Set Design/Lead Scenic Artist: Robin McIntyre; Costume Design: A. Emily Heaney; Lighting Design: Alex Clark; Sound Design: Jeremy Stanbary; Props Design: Nate Farley; Fight Director: Mason Tyer; Stage Manager: Lynn Seeling.

Cast: Peter Aitchison (Duncan/Siward), Meg Bradley (Witch, ensemble), Tom Burr (Young Macduff/ Seyton/ensemble), Peter Colburn (Banquo), Tolu Ekisola (Caithness/ensemble), John Goodrich (Agnes/ Porter), Haley McCormick Jenkins (Lady Macduff/ensemble) Gabrielle Jones (Donalbain/ ensemble), Kaitlin Klemencic (Witch/ensemble), Nick Manthe (Lennox/ensemble), Noah Ratgen (Macduff), Aaron Ruder (Ross/ensemble), Dylan Sauder (Fleance/ensemble), Jonah Smith (Macbeth), J. Antonio Teodoro (Malcolm), Rae Wasson (Witch/ensemble), Maretta Zilic (Lady Macbeth).