My overall impression
I loved this show. It was brilliant. It is difficult to make a parody of Shakespeare while still honoring the amazing language, meaning and depth of the original text. Somehow Porter’s Macbeth is hilarious, heart-wrenching, reflective and fun. It is a fantastic idea to have the tale told by one of the lesser characters and through the eyes of the Porter. It is akin to Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which is high praise. It was absolutely genius to have us watch the story through the Porter’s eyes and see it become more dramatic when he was sobering up and grow more silly and comedic when he knocked back more beer. The director and actors clearly have a strong understanding of the play, characters and language and are able to combine modern humor and complex text. The physicality is also brilliant; and I think it is always key to have great physicality when offering Shakespeare to modern audiences. I loved the musical elements because created so much of the atmosphere and set the stage, coloring the plain black box theatre with sonic settings.
SPOILER:
In the end Shakespeare wins out over the Porter’s drunkenness because he is out of beer, again an extremely clever concept, and you still feel the intense tragedy of Lady Macbeth and ponder the painful, prominent, and meaningful existential questions that make the original play so great. You leave laughing and thinking.
