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Therein lies the problem with a new production at the 14th Street Y of Macbeth, here retitled Macbeth (Of The Oppressed) by adapter/director Tom Slot. Attempting something bold by reimagining genders and relationships, Slot has painted himself and a talented cast into an untenable corner. Not only have the genders of the performers playing some of the characters been switched (which would not have been a problem), but the genders of the characters themselves have been switched. King Duncan is now Queen Duncan (Susan G. Bob), Banquo (Elisabeth Preston) is a woman, and —most significantly —Lady Macbeth is now a man, someone called "Husband Macbeth" (a bravura effort by David Stallings). Moving way beyond altering the text to accommodate gender-specific pronouns, this production asks us to consider the iconic female character of Lady Macbeth as a male, one who still has to say the lines "Come to my woman's breasts, and take my milk for gall" and "I know…how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me." These words are then following by a most disturbing image: "I would, while it was smiling in my face/Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums/And dash'd the brains out." Coming from the mouth of Lady Macbeth —a woman, a wife and a mother —this is shocking stuff, even today. Coming from the mouth of "Husband Macbeth," it is merely absurd. And so it goes throughout the production, which becomes more muddled as it gets further and further caught up in the gender traps it has laid for itself —and to what purpose? No one is "oppressed" because of their sexual orientation. Indeed, if anyone is oppressed in Macbeth, it is the poor family of Macduff (Mel House, playing another character who is gender-switched), whose wife and children are slaughtered on Macbeth's orders. Ill-conceived as the production is, it still boasts solid performances by its company of actors. Antonio Minino as Macbeth and Elisabeth Preston as Banquo are the standouts, each of them rising above the premise to focus on their characterizations. Lavita Shaurice, James Edward Becton, and Briana Sakamoto also do splendidly as the trio of witches whose predictions doom Macbeth to his inevitable downfall. Credit, too, to fight choreographer Chester Poon for the terrific swordplay, Izzy Fields for the excellent costumes, and Jacob Subotnick (sound design) and Daniel Gallagher (lighting) for bringing a high degree of professionalism to this head-scratching effort.
Macbeth (Of The Oppressed)
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