“Macbeth” by the sea a tale of two halves

Macbeth was never one of my faves. Despite spurts of spectacular (“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” — yeah), a lot of the writing leaves me cold (“Double, double, toil and trouble” — bleah); and the “no man of woman born” thing may be the lamest idea the Bard ever had. 

So I was surprised in 2017 when Shakespeare by the Sea managed to deliver a production I more or less enjoyed, with astute abridgement of the script and spot-on interpretations of the central passages making for about as engaging a traditionalist, low-budget take as could be for a contemporary audience.

I was equally surprised to find SbtS revisiting Macbeth so soon. But with Stephanie Coltrin once again directing, I was hopeful they might repeat their earlier success. And for half the show, they did. But after intermission came an abrupt change of course that forsook most everything that had been working so well.

When the Three Witches (Hadiyyah Noelle Smith, Megan Rule, and Samantha Moffat) came onstage and delivered their first lines with a happy-go-lucky lilt, I was concerned about what was to come. Soon, though, I was down with the program. Whereas most Macbeths go out of their way to emphasize the script’s heaviness, it seemed Coltrin had intently focused her cast on the rhythm of the language, letting the substance speak for itself rather than forcing the issue. This Macbeth’s first half is a masterclass on Shakespeare’s genius for constructing dialog the speaks to the ear even if you’re not fully following the meaning, all galloping iambs and alliteration that strategically downshift into foot-dragging shuffles. Although placing the linguistic contrivances above the emotion might seem to undercut the audience’s understanding of what is happening inside the characters, this approach works wonders for anyone who (like me) thinks Macbeth’s heaviness is overwrought on the page.

With this approach, Coltrin could never have cast a better Macbeth than SbtS mainstay Cylan Brown, who seems born to this sort of diction. No less well cast is Phoebe Alva, who leaned into Lady Macbeth’s wicked ambition at just the right moments to just the right degree. And Dylan J. Sampson gives us a Duncan who earns Macbeth’s description of him as a king “So clear in his great office, that his virtues / Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against / The deep damnation of his taking-off.”

Mike Thal’s sound design is extremely effective in the play’s first half, keeping a tight leash on mood music and employing sound effects so advisedly that when we do hear something (bells, horses), it unfailingly contributes to the overall aesthetic spell. Thus, when Lady Macbeth meditates on the letter from her husband that reveals the Witches’ prophecy, Alva’s patient, halting delivery played perfectly against Thal’s spare work, which itself melded with the aural ambiance of the Recreation Park, with children in the distance and the steady whoosh of cars along PCH and 7th Street.

But after intermission it was a different play, or the same play now directed by someone who didn’t dig her first-half counterpart’s approach. Suddenly actors were over-emoting left and right, while the lovely spareness of Thal’s sound design gave way to melodramatic bombast. Completely gone was the ethos of letting the text carry its own weight. I’d love to tell you how good Cylan Brown was with the “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” monolog, but no actor would be a match for the incongruous sonics beneath (or maybe “on top of”) his lines. It’s as if Coltrin had a crisis of confidence, not fully trusting that the instinct for focused restraint that carried her halfway home would serve to get her the rest of the way.

One element that didn’t suffer after intermission was Christopher Beyries’s set. SbtS’s sets are always solid, but with a couple of tasteful flourishes Beyries has created a thing of minor beauty, which blended so well with the Recreation Park bandshell and environs that one might imagine that parts of it were permanent. An upstage downward stairway makes for some notably effective comings and goings (particularly when Lady Macbeth leaves her husband to plant the daggers), and sunset revealed some very interesting shadowplay. 

At worst, you can count on Shakespeare by the Sea to deliver competent, minimalist, loving work — for free, no less (though donations are greatly encouraged, as institutional funding constitutes little more than half their costs). And doing so in an open public space is a tradition well worth both enjoying and keeping alive. But here we have a performance that’s more. Okay, so maybe things take a wrong turn about halfway through, but that’s not a reason to write off the whole experience. You’ll never find a better opportunity to get your ears — or your kids’ ears — around the sound of Shakespeare than the first half of this show. 

Shakespeare by the Sea makes a return to Point Fermin Park (807 Paseo de Mar, San Pedro) on July 10–11 at 7pm. For other dates and locations, check out shakespearebythesea.org or call (310) 217-7596.