QUICK TAKE
Macbeth
By
: William Shakespeare
Presented by
: Arizona Theatre Company
Director
: Stephen Wrentmore
When
: Final preview is 7:30 p.m. today; regular performances are 7:30 p.m. Friday (opening), Tuesday, next Thursday and April 22; 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Continues through April 30.
Where:
Temple of Music and Art (Main Stages map, Page 9)
Tickets
: $26-$44, with discounts available.
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Information
: 622-2823 or online at arizonatheatre.org
Et cetera
: Discussions with cast members follow the 7:30 p.m. April 19 and 20 and the 2 p.m. April 27 performances. Audio-described services are 2 p.m. April 27 and 28. American Sign Language performance is 8 p.m. April 23. The 2 p.m. April 28 performance is open-captioned.
Length
: 2 1/2
hours
Act 1
As Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, and Banquo, a general, return victorious from a battle - a battle Macbeth was instrumental in winning - they meet a group of weird women. Macbeth will be the Thane of Cawdor, they insist, and is the future king of Scotland.
Furthermore, they say, Banquo is the father of future kings.
Then a messenger shows up with the news: The good King Duncan, so very grateful to the great warrior Macbeth, has named him the Thane of Cawdor.
Whoa, Macbeth and Banquo think. This is just strange - the witches' prediction is coming true.
Macbeth writes his wife to tell her of the witches' prophecies. Lady Macbeth loves it. She wants them to be true. When she hears King Duncan will be spending the night at the Macbeths' castle, she makes plans to kill him.
But when Macbeth gets home, she persuades him to do it - Duncan looks too much like her late father for her to stab him.
Macbeth isn't sure this is the best course of action - after all, King Duncan was downright good to him.
But Lady Macbeth is a convincing woman. The guards are drugged, Macbeth stabs the king to death, and as he returns with the bloody dagger, Lady Macbeth takes it from him and smears the guards with blood in order to pin the blame on them.
Don't worry, she tells her husband. These bloodstains will wash right out with water.
Duncan's body is discovered the next morning by Macduff, a Scottish nobleman.
As prophesied, Macbeth is king.
Duncan's son, Malcolm, has taken off for another country - it isn't safe to stay in a place in which his father was killed.
Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth worries about the witches' forecasts that future kings would be from Banquo's lineage. To prevent that, she strongly suggests Macbeth knock Banquo off.
Her wish is his command. Banquo and his son, Fleance, are on the way to Macbeth's castle when they are attacked by assassins. Banquo dies; Fleance flees.
Macbeth and his wife are hosting a banquet when he gets news of Banquo's death and Fleance's escape. A cloud of guilt descends on Macbeth, who is visited by a vision of Banquo. Macbeth starts acting pretty darn strange, and the guests become suspicious.
Act 2
Macbeth goes out in search of the witches - he wants more answers.
They are pretty confusing: They warn Macbeth to beware Macduff. He's told not to be afraid of any man born of woman. And they assure him nothing will happen to him until Birnam Wood moves against his castle.
But Macbeth will not be calmed. He has a vision of eight kings descended from Banquo, and that moves him to kill Macduff's wife and children.
He and his wife agree: All who get in their way will be slaughtered.
Understandably, Macduff is pretty upset about the death of his family. Revenge, urges Malcolm.
Back at the Macbeth castle, a doctor and lady in waiting watch as a by-now-off-her-rocker Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, recounting the crimes she and her husband have committed, and tearing at her hands murmuring "Out, out damn spot."
Meanwhile, Malcolm, Macduff and other refugees from Macbeth's country pluck branches from the trees of Birnam Wood as camouflage as they approach Macbeth's castle.
Who can blame her for killing herself?
Macbeth hears about his wife's death, and then is told that Birnam Wood seems to be sneaking up on his castle.
Off to battle he goes, and he meets up with Macduff. Macbeth is confident, as he believes "no man born of woman" is a threat to him.
Macduff scoffs at that one - he was "from his mother's womb untimely ripped."
We'll leave the ending for you to figure out.
