Macbeth – Production History

by Makayla Buckholz, Maddie Haddad, Saoirse Plafker, and Gianna Sandoval

Audrey Stanley’s 1983 production of Macbeth starred Julian Curry, a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Robin Miramontes as the Macbeths, while Armon Stover played Macduff. The San Francisco Chronicle noted that Curry’s Macbeth, which was praised for its haunted intensity, appeared “trapped inside his destiny,” a sentiment the production’s stark visual design reinforced. Created by Norvid Jenkins Roos, the set was minimalist but symbolically rich. Roos’s design took inspiration from a reference Hecate makes, in Act Three, to “the pit of Acheron”: an infernal meeting place for the Witches and the spirits they command, constructed from ramps and cage-like metal structures that actors used as platforms, creating a sense of both confinement and vulnerability. This production’s costumes eschewed historical realism and blended medieval elements with more modern styles of clothing. Stanley said that she aimed to “explore the past, without being too fixed in historical time.” Performed alongside The Merry Wives of Windsor, this Macbeth reflected on the nature of marriage as a partnership, the experience of becoming captive to one’s own passions (ambition, fear, jealousy), and the capacity of women to subvert traditional gender norms and drive the action of the story.

Mark Rucker directed the next production of Macbeth in 1992, alongside The Taming of the Shrew and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, two other plays known for their strong female characters – a lineup appropriate for 1992, the “Year of the Woman,” following the historic election of three women to the U.S. Senate. James Carpenter and Kate Skinner appeared in the leading roles. Michael Edwards, then the Artistic Director of the festival, was excited to stage the play in The Glen and use the forest to evoke primal passions and create an atmosphere of foreboding. Sets were minimal; the only furnishings on stage were primitive stone structures. This was a popular choice among critics, allowing the audience to focus closely on the cast’s performance. The costumes for the production drew on medieval and Celtic designs. Cast members were dressed in long robes, Carpenter’s Macbeth sported a Celtic tattoo, and the three Weird Sisters (played by Susannah Schulman, Ailin Conant, and Michael Faulkner), wore long, white, flowing dresses, suggestive of druid priestesses.

The curse of the Scottish play made itself felt in this production. Multiple injuries occurred during rehearsals, and on opening night, there was a technical malfunction with the lights that tripled the length of intermission. Frogs and owls wandered onto the stage, and, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, the lack of acoustics made lines difficult to hear at the back of the house, but reviews were generally positive. The sound design and special effects were praised – including the fog machine that required special permission from the Fire Department.

In 2001, Michael Edwards’ production of Macbeth removed the play’s action from its medieval setting and placed it in a time both austerely ancient and recognizably modern. Characters, wearing familiar clothing, moved across a nearly-bare stage, adorned with a simple wooden throne. Local reviews praised the lighting and sound design for creating striking visual effects that filled the stage’s empty space. Paul Whitworth, the festival’s Artistic Director, played Macbeth, alongside Mhari Sandoval as Lady Macbeth. This Macbeth was performed in conjunction with A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer. All three plays feature plotting couples (albeit with different motives and objectives). Whitworth wrote that the common thread between the three plays is the “strange intelligence” that overshadows reason, whether it came from dreams, visions, or the deepest desires or fears of the characters.

For Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s 2015 season, its last in the Glen, Kirsten Brandt approached Macbeth from a feminist perspective, leveraging the company’s commitment to gender parity in casting to question the stark distinctions between masculinity and femininity in the play. Steve Pickering and Melinda Parrett played the Macbeths, and Greta Wohlrabe appeared as Banquo. Brandt set the play in medieval Scotland and used costumes inspired by the Vikings to evoke the turbulent final years of the first millennium, but the production encouraged the audience to focus on present concerns. The 2016 presidential election was then only a few months away, and Brandt invited the audience to reflect on the nature of leadership, the qualities that all effective leaders must have, and whether a good leader can ever be an unequivocally good person.