In his return to the Stratford Festival, director Robert Lepage immersed his audience with stunning sets and leather-clad bikers awash in guns and drugs in the war between rivals.
Opening night at the Avon Theatre provided imagery of fierce ambition, grisly deaths and passionate love fans of Macbeth have come to know and adore over the centuries.
The production was created through a collaboration with Lepage’s Ex Machina.
While the special effects were astounding – a body sinking to its watery grave and a ghostly, angelic female figure floating away, but two of many – the seedy motel that provided a home base to Macbeth (Tom McCamus) and Lady Macbeth (Lucy Peacock) was a revelation in its adaptability, garnering applause for creativity.
The stage crew made quick work of transitions when conversations moved from the upstairs/downstairs numbered doors to inside the bedroom, with the Macbeths barely missing a beat when they returned to their bed, or a room needed to be cleaned of a bloody mess up top, while bikers indulged in bad habits below.
With a Sons of Anarchy feel at times, the cast, led by McCamus and Peacock, provided passionate performances, often clad in leather and denim.
One could not get enough of watching festival veterans André Sills (Ross) and Emilio Vieira (Lennox), amongst others, riding motorcycles on stage in downtown Stratford.
Aidan deSalaiz, Paul Dunn and Anthony Palermo as the prophetic three witches were a colourful, memorable part of the cast.
Tom Rooney, with flowing locks as Macduff, had something to say about Macbeth’s ambitions in their spirited final fight scene.
Lepage has commented that regardless of the time period, “there is always a Macbeth somewhere – an ambitious person who transforms a society into a dictatorship.”
Macbeth runs until Nov. 2.
