Macbeth

Last night, Dad took K and I to see Macbeth at the Loretto-Hilton Center at Webster University, put on by the Repertory Theater.  It was really good!

Now, in fairness, I haven't seen Macbeth performed very often, so I don't have much to compare it to, but still.  We had great seats which made it easy to see the actors' facial expression and small movements, plus there weren't a lot of audience members in front of us to be distracting.

Some of the scenes in the first act were very well done - for example, when Macbeth starts to go crazy after he's killed Duncan and Banquo (by proxy) - but when I really started to lose myself in the play was the scene in the second act where Macduff's wife and children get slaughtered.  You know that thing that happens when you get really engrossed in something, so much so that you don't even know you've lost yourself until you find yourself again?  When you're reading a book and lose all track of what's around you and just lose yourself in the story?  That happened starting with the slaughter scene.  (Hmm, I wonder what that says about me?)  So for the rest of the show, I was totally lost.

Another thing I loved was the opening.  You know how every book of Shakespeare opens the play with the cast of characters?  Well, they actually acted out the character list.  All the actors knelt on or near the stage, and each one stood up and announced the name of the character(s) they were playing.  I'm very visual, so it really helped!  As characters go, I especially liked Macbeth (duh), Macduff, and the witches, who were super creepy and weird.

Overall, a lovely evening.  Thanks, T!  Oh, and thanks for the coffee also.