Thursday, June 22, 2006

Tess' report

This is from Tess who went to Macbeth no less than thrice, last Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Thanks for sharing this.

On Thursday, I was in line at 6:20 a.m. and was third in line. On Saturday, I came about the same time, and was 12th to 15th in line. I think you can get better seats on weekdays than weekends. I got second row, middle section. During the weekends is when the locals watch the play. Also, on Sunday, I decided to line up at the cancellation line and was able to get a ticket. I heard that there was a really long line Saturday night and yet everyone got a ticket.

I know people didn't like JE's interpretation of Lady M and at first I didn't either. I thought she needed to be more over the top (like the queen in Once Upon a Mattress) but then I talked to a man in line and he said she may have been portraying a beautiful lady with an evil mind. More subtle and deceiving. And yes, he was right! She was funny when M saw the ghost. She also played down her craziness but effective I think. I watched her face closely with my binoculars and loved her facial expressions and hand movements. I loved it when she said started pulling on her left arm and said "What's done, cannot be undone." It's so much easier to just let go and get crazy but harder to perform a controlled lunacy. Oh, there is a Delacorte employee who comes around selling Shakespeare stuff. I recommend people buy the Mcbeth book. It's got the original script on the left page of the book and an interpretation on the right. It helped me understand what they were saying.

I noticed that they would make little changes here and there since it is still preview, like entrances and body movements. At the end of the play, the three witches appear and say "When shall we meet again?" and then they look towards the audience. Last night, they didn't turn at all.

For stargazers (and Sunshine fans) among you, Tess adds that Ralph Fiennes is happy to sign after Faith Healer if you have a Playbill, even if you didn't watch the show. Julia Roberts will also sign if you have a ticket.

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