Last Saturday I went to go see Acme Theatre Company's production of Macbeth. Acme is a teen theater group in Davis, Calif. They performed the play "in the round," with the audience seated directly on the stage in three rows. Unfortunately, I think they would have done better performing it conventionally.
The actors did a decent job, but I didn't go home as wowed as I usually do after a play--including plays with some of these same actors. I think that being so close made it harder for both the actors and us to suspend our disbelief. When I am on a stage, whether the house is dark and the lights are on me or I'm performing outside in broad daylight, the stage creates a small realm where I can forget about the audience and become fully absorbed in my character and the story. Acting an a foot away from an audience member who's grinning and enjoying the tragic scene would probably be a bit more difficult. The cast of Macbeth seems to have experienced this. For me, sitting in the audience, being able to see the mediocre costumes up close didn't really add to the experience. Neither did the sack of red "blood" that flew our way at the end. For more experienced actors, doing it in the round might have been very effective, but for Acme I think it ended up working to their disadvantage.
Interestingly, they cast the witches as guys. Unfortunately, this left only three males to play the remaining male roles, so most of them were played by girls, including Macduff. The girls did very well, but it just wasn't the same. However, the witches were fantastic--creepy and definitely weird without being ridiculous--but I would have rather they had used the guys for the roles that really must be male.
All of the actors did very well, considering the level of difficulty, but there were a few that really stood out. Delany Pelz, who played Lady Macbeth, had great energy throughout and was very convincing, as she always is. Vivian Breckenridge, who played Malcom, was also very good, and I have to give Kate McFarland a heap of credit for doing such a good job as a fierce, noble, and manly warrior. And, since I should say something about the title role, John Ramos, who played Macbeth, did great, but I've seen him do better--blame the format.
