My overall impression
Tony Frankel, theatre critic for Stage and Cinema here.
PORTER’S MACBETH is a one-hour retelling of Shakespeare’s Scottish Play from the viewpoint of Porter, a minor character who is the gatekeeper at Macbeth’s home. Turner Munch’s rapid-fire and inventive direction will surely make this a crowd pleaser, especially for those who accept stylized histrionics and zany antics in lieu of character development and story. Munch surely accomplished his goal of creative and heightened physicality, and there were some truly inspired bits, but his style overtook substance, especially when the hyper and occasionally unfocused high school-like proceedings verged on the annoying and inaccessible.
For over 30 years, I have been adjudicating High School Shakespeare Festivals wherein students are assigned a Shakespeare play and have 8-10 minutes to present an ensemble piece (monologues are 3-5 minutes). Because there are rules banning costumes, props, etc., school kids more or less cram an entire play into 10 minutes with such rapidity that it would make the speed of light pale by comparison. Although the scenes elicit non-stop chuckles from fellow schoolmates, judges are often annoyed by the slamming metal chairs, interminable screeching and broad character portrayals, which were all evident in PORTER’S MACBETH. When actors take on a persona, such as the Witches in Macbeth, they often render the language unintelligible, which also happened in PORTER’S MACBETH. Judges are forever grateful at the school festivals when a scene appears that is not based on manic physicality, but internalized performances.
This is not to say that such scenes can not be funny or entertaining, for they allow the actors to become the setting of the story. It is always amusing to watch actors become furniture, doors, trees or ships, utilizing sound effects and a capella singing to create a mood. This style of theatre is based on the improvisational techniques (later called Theatre Games) of Viola Spolin, who is singlehandedly responsible for the world of Improvisational Theatre as we know it today, teaching at Second City in Chicago. Second City was founded by her son, Paul Sills, as a place where scenes and story were created using techniques that grew out of Spolin’s teaching.
These games were created to help actors focus and unleash creative choices. They are crazy fun to execute, and can often be very funny to watch – but just for a while. Even the best improvised scene can become grating on the nerves. This is why the form of theatre Mr. Munch is taking on needs to incorporate the nutty shenanigans into the story, not the other way around. Actors need to slow down and enunciate, more drama is needed to break up the monotony of the movement and, most importantly, please stop slamming those metal chairs – we want to be disquieted by the story, not the noise.
