the Bard would be proud

This Saturday I went to Macbeth presented by the Kentucky Shakespeare Company.  Many of you outside the Commonwealth of Kentucky probably find the idea of Shakespeare performed by the denizens of Kentucky comical; it is indeed.  The plays put on by this company are either really good or tragic.  Macbeth is a play that is really easy to perform badly.  This was so well done that I would go again.  Unfortunately, unlike normal people I can’t go from ‘point a’ to ‘point b,’ without something ‘interesting’ happening. 

I went with Linda and some people from church; I think they’re my parents.  I haven’t been to Central Park coming from where I work so Linda text-messaged me (bad) directions.  This was in response to my asking her, in reference to a bottle of wine, if she’d like to have an Ménage a Trios, which is by coincidence my favorite brand of wine to drink too much of.  Unfortunately, this was presented more as a proposition between: myself, Linda, and the waitress; instead of: “would you like to get drunk on a cheap bottle of win with me?”  The waitress was down but Linda was not; it was humiliating for everyone (except the waitress).  To revenge herself and her house upon me she sent me on Coolio’s fantastic voyage through the worst parts of Louisville.  The plays are performed in Central Park, which again has all the seediness but none of the class of New York’s Central Park.  It’s entirely possible that I was supposed to drive passed all those meth houses and “Gentlemen’s Clubs” to get there. 

The Bard would be proud. 

The play was great but went wrong in several areas.  The Kentucky Shakespeare Company has an African American actor.  He has recently lost a great deal of weight – or since the last time I was here to watch it – and now looks like Dave Chappelle.  I kept expecting him to do or say something funny.  I kept hearing him say, “THEY SHOULD NEVER HAVE GIVEN YOU HIGHLANDERS MONEY!” and, “&$%# YOUR COUCH, HIGHLANDER!  &$%# YOUR COUCH!”  He was wearing big boots like Chappelle did in the Rick James episode.  There was also a boy who looked like Harry Potter, but that wasn’t as distracting as Dave Chappelle as Macbeth.  

As with every low-budge Shakespeare Company, the company did something, ‘different’ and ‘snazzy’ with the costuming or theme of the play.  Shakespeare’s stories are timeless so we can juxtapose them on any canvas we want to.  This Macbeth was costumed in an amalgamation of the subcultures that are outfitted by Hot Topic.  At first I wasn’t confident that the people in bondage pants and Hannibal Lecter masks were actors in the play but when they knew all the lines my fears were assuaged.  I think they chose this motif because they use the same basic set every year and the dark, patent leather with bright plaids set the tone for Scotland.  Actually, the costuming was brilliant and I would explain it to you but it would betray the fact that I have a master’s degree in teaching English.  It was like watching Chaos Bean’s people kill each other. 

The play was well done though.  It is usually an acceptable performance but while you’re sitting there with people light up and bugs are chewing on your extremities it’s difficult to tolerate something that isn’t completely fantastic.  Theater people scare me, especially when they think they’re from Britain.  This wasn’t just tolerable; I’d sit in the heat and watch it again.  

Comments

[Colleen]

I think that the "Use whatever time period or costume that suits you" in plays has gone kookoo. I recently saw Jekyll and Hyde done with S&M gear. Leather, chains, spikes, fishnets....hooker wear, basically. It scarred me for life.