Created by Whitney White, who can be a magnetic onstage presence, and directed by Tyler Dobrowsky and Taibi Magar, “Macbeth in Stride” typically seems to be and appears like a rock live performance, with live performance lighting bathing the onstage band. Showing among the many devices within the present’s opening are ominous robed Witches (Stacey Sargeant, Ximone Rose, Chelsea Lee Williams), who will later rework into backup singers and a enjoyable bantering refrain. With ritual gestures, they cue within the rating, orchestrated by White and music director Steven Cuevas — catchy, moody music that ranges via R&B, gospel, pop and rock. (Raja Feather Kelly choreographs; Jeanette Yew is lighting designer; and Qween Jean, costume designer.)
When the Lady (White, in a glittery physique swimsuit) seems, the Witches turn out to be her confidantes. Prodded by them to say what she needs as an bold Black girl, she confesses that she covets energy with a “capital P.” Quickly, she is stepping out and in of a model of “Macbeth” that facilities Woman Macbeth — a personality infamous for daring to starvation for extra.
Passionate, self-possessed and self-aware, White’s Woman M is interesting in a approach that bolsters the “I need” motif of “Macbeth in Stride.” In different productions, or when studying Shakespeare’s textual content, it’s straightforward to put in writing off the Macbeths as grasping, unthinking opportunists. However when White’s Woman Macbeth speaks about “I dare not” ready upon “I’d,” she appears to seize what all of us undergo with our every day fears, hopes and frustrations.
Intensifying the deal with girls’s expertise, this model of the Scottish play sheds the unique’s all-guy fights and confabs. (Sorry, Donalbain!) However Macbeth himself turns up: the Man (a spot-on Charlie Thurston) is a ditherer whose distinction with the glamorous go-getting Lady sharpens when he dorkily performs the accordion.
The Man’s squeezebox behavior isn’t the present’s solely jolt of delectable humor. There’s additionally coronation-spoofing confetti and drolly juxtaposed Shakespearean and fashionable speech. “I’ll take the pink,” a wine-quaffing Witch says throughout a cocktail party scene.
The comedy provides additional accessibility to the play’s severe interrogation of prejudice, patriarchy, privilege and exclusionary inventive custom. The Lady tells the Witches that she longs to be handled in a approach that isn’t racist, sexist or condescending: “Don’t contact my hair/ Don’t speak once I’m speaking/ Don’t say there’s an excessive amount of on my plate.”
“Macbeth in Stride” typically poses its what-do-you-want query extra bluntly than is perfect, and it skates over plot factors (for instance, Banquo’s ghost) in a approach that may confuse viewers whose “Macbeth” data is rusty.
However the manufacturing is generally additional proof of White’s breathtaking expertise. An acclaimed director (together with of Broadway’s present “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”), she reveals herself right here to be a terrific singer, in addition to an actor and author.
Mounted by STC in affiliation with Philadelphia Theatre Firm and Brooklyn Academy of Music, “Macbeth in Stride” is a part of her five-part cycle deconstructing Shakespeare’s girls and ambition. To guage by this present, the opposite elements additionally need to strut and fret their hour upon the stage.
Macbeth in Stride, created and carried out by Whitney White. Directed by Tyler Dobrowsky and Taibi Magar; scenic design, Daniel Soule; sound, Nick Kourtides. About 90 minutes. Tickets: $35 and up. By way of Oct. 29 at Shakespeare Theatre Firm’s Klein Theatre, 450 seventh Avenue NW. 202-547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org.
