“Saltburn,” “Gossip Girl,” “Dynasty” and even the color red are all inspirations for this version of “Macbeth,” as directed by J.P. Quirk for the Albright Theatre.
William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” is being staged April 19-May 4 with performances at 7:30 p.m. April 19, 20, 27 and May 3-4 and at 2:30 p.m. April 28 at the Albright Community Theatre in Batavia. It’s the second show in the community theater’s 50th anniversary season.
Macbeth is Scotland’s greatest warrior until three witches tell him he’s going to be the king, sending him down a violent and tragic path. His wife, Lady Macbeth, is blinded by her own ambitions until her own guilt and his cruelty fuels her descent into madness.
In theater circles, “Macbeth” is often called “the Scottish Play” based on the longstanding superstition that saying the name “Macbeth” in the theater curses the production.
“I go out of my way to say it as many times as I want because I think it’s hilarious,” Quirk said. “I’m all about changing the narrative.”
Maybe it’s the high school English teacher in him, but he enjoys directing Shakespeare. And not only is Shakespeare generally a familiar crowd-pleaser, but theaters also don’t have to pay for the rights and the sets aren’t too lavish, he said.
“I may have exhausted the costume budget on this one though, because there are 26 people in the show,” he said, laughing.
“Macbeth” is one of Shakespeare’s darkest tragedies.
“This show is very heavy. It’s dark, it’s sinister,” he said. “It’s about torment and addressing a narrative on the human psyche. Is Macbeth being haunted by a ghost or is he being haunted by all the terrible decisions that he’s made?
“I do think it is one of Shakespeare’s better tragedies … but ‘Macbeth’ is a hard show to tackle. It packs so much stuff in two and a half hours. I think if you really tune in, the show is about a relatively good person getting wrapped up in power and greed and he’s being gaslit by the people around him.”
There aren’t many redeeming qualities to the characters in the show, he said. They’re all making pretty terrible decisions.
“Macbeth is kind of like the everyman. Someone dangled a carrot in front of him and he took it,” he said.
Quirk took partial inspiration from the recent movie “Saltburn,” even though, he admitted, “there were some really odd scenes.”
“Something that was so interesting about that movie is the juxtaposition of these very, very posh, wealthy people on this backdrop of decay and forgottenness. The whole mansion, the estate of Saltburn, there was flypaper hanging from the ceiling and grounds weren’t tended to. The grass was brown,” he said.
“They would put on their finest clothes for dinner but yet one of the curtains was falling off the rod in the dining room. I thought there was something so interesting about that. Like when you’ve reached a point where you’re so wealthy you’re beyond putting on airs, you just don’t care.”
That’s what he’s done with “Macbeth” – the sets are purposefully very stark, decayed, run-down and sinister-looking, yet the actors are dressed in finery.
“It’s very ‘Dynasty’-inspired. Like ‘Gossip Girl’ meets ‘Dynasty,’ but set in an old swamp,” he said. “I’m a firm believer in if you don’t understand Shakespeare, if you see a good production that focuses on the visuals as well, it can turn your experience around.
“That’s my goal — I’m hoping people like it because we’ve changed the narrative. It’s not the same old dusty Shakespeare. The language is the same, but it’s a modern, weird, creepy, glamorous take on a really old, sinister, dark show.”
The color red is used as a motif, signaling someone who has power, he said.
As Macbeth sinks into paranoia and madness, his murderous rampage continues.
Jon Witt is commanding in the title role and delivers a refined, solid performance, allowing his castmates to shine, Quirk said.
“He has more lines than I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. “He’s doing great.”
Quirk hopes people buy the ticket and support local theater and maybe learn something as well.
“I tell my students people don’t realize that the language we have today is here because of William Shakespeare,” he said. “He created thousands of words. He changed the way we thought about human emotions and feelings and the human psyche. Most of all, I think they should come see it because it’s a good show. The cast is doing a great job.
“And there is some humor in it. Shakespeare was notorious for that. Even in his heaviest tragedies, Shakespeare always added some comedic elements,” he said. “‘Macbeth’ is the one most people know – it has the three witches. Double, double, toil and trouble.”
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the Beacon-News.
‘Macbeth’
When: April 19-May 4
Where: Albright Community Theatre, 100 N. Island Ave., Third Floor, Batavia
Tickets: $18-$23
Information: 630-406-8838; albrighttheatre.com
