Macbeth Play Evaluation

On October 1, 2016, I went to see a production of Macbeth, a famous play written by William Shakespeare. This particular production of Macbeth was directed by Geoffrey Wilson and was performed at the Lincoln Theatre. After having read the play for the class, I was curious as to how certain aspects of the play would be produced on stage; such as when “Birnam wood moves to Dunsinane” as well as the final fight between Macbeth and Macduff. This adaption of Macbeth met my expectations in certain areas but fell short in other aspects. The use of props, the composition of actors, and the amount of female characters in the play allowed the audience to experience Macbeth in a unique way. A unique aspect of Macbeth was the use of props throughout the duration of the play. The property master, Heather Wright, made each prop in the play a multipurpose tool. The stationary tree provided cover for actors rather than them having to go off stage, provided the distinct sound of creaking wood when turned, and provided a place to hang light sources which were utilized throughout the

Although Macbeth contains many characters, the production only had 10 actors; each actor played multiple roles, aside from Macbeth. The director’s decision to only cast 10 actors despite the enormous amount of characters within the play was an interesting decision. Having each actor portray multiple characters made the production feel more intimate and diverse because the audience got to see the same handful of actors take on the different personas of the multitude of characters. This aspect of production enhanced the atmosphere of the play by allowing the audience to focus not only on the characters but also on the relationships between the characters. Since Macbeth was always played by the same actor, it was interesting to observe his reactions with every other character in the