Vulcan Theatre Company Gender Bends Macbeth
Niki Hatzidis, Features editor
Vulcan Theatre Company’s production of Macbeth is about to take the stage in New York City, focusing on the play’s gender politics, cycles of violence, fate vs. coincidence, and more in this iteration of the well known Scottish Play by The Bard. But there’s a twist. In a play about an ambitious male anti-hero and his calculating, villainous, wife plotting to take the thrown, Vulcan poses the question: what would happen to the story if the gender roles were in reverse? With an intimate playing space and a distinct physical life to the storytelling, the company intends to explore just that by alternating with a female Macbeth and a male Lady Macbeth one night, and a traditional telling the next.
The intention to bring a fresh take to Shakespeare’s infamous husband and wife duo was ingrained in the mission of the company at its inception. “The decision to incorporate both versions of the character in our production, I believe was borne out of a desire to learn,” director Rob Bradvica told me, “working with a male and female-presenting Macbeth provides an opportunity for us as a company, and an ensemble, to discover what happens to this story when we change the hierarchy, which then leads to a deeper understanding of the show as a whole.” The company encourages audience members to come and see both versions as well in order to fully experience the scope of differences this small change makes, bring the context of the play into a new light.
With this exploration of Macbeth, Bradvica wanted to use elements of Brechtian style of theater, with minimalism and absurdism mixed in, with also a few movement techniques such as Viewpoints and Suzuki to bring a specific physical aesthetic to the story. “When you look at Macbeth as a play, there is a clear sense of rigidity within the structure of these characters' world,” Rob said, “but juxtaposed to that, you have these beings in the Witches that are so clearly not of this realm, and one of the best ways to show those differences off, in my opinion, is through the body; through movement.” With this approach, Bradvica hopes to bring a more visually compelling telling of this famous Shakespeare play.
Movement director Rachel Weekley is in charge of the heavily physical life of the production. They explained to me how the ensemble created two very distinct worlds; the everyday world and the world of the witches. “Our everyday world started in a sense of stillness. Rigidity, stubbornness, a world where a false step could cost you kingdoms,” Weekley described a “world that was based in human senses but didn't know if even those could be trusted.” In contrast, the witches’ world is much freer. “Our witches started out in a sense of faith, that comes from finding true comfort and trust in oneself and one's companions and even one's work,” Weekley said, “there is a freedom and a fluidity in these beings that travel between worlds, but that was always grounded in an unwavering sense of themselves and their place in the universe. What is the freedom, the joy, the play in a world where you are absolutely where you are supposed to be?”
There are power dynamics in the play already when presented in the traditional telling, but what happens when a male presenting Lady Macbeth is pulling the strings to get a female-presenting Macbeth the thrown? What dynamics are to be discovered? It is an interesting idea to put into place. “When you flip the gender, you instead are placing the female in the role of the military hero, the leader, the hot-headed-quick-to-action person who is ready to literally fight for what they want, and you see the male in a lower status position, having to manipulate and use their wits to achieve their goals, as opposed to the brashness you may normally expect” Rob explained to me. “There are a lot of discoveries that have been made through this decision, and it’s surprised me how much changes affect the story, when seemingly it shouldn’t mean much, especially in the world we live in now where its ridiculous (or should be) to believe a woman couldn’t function effectively in this role.”
There were continuous revelations through the exploration of movement and sound as well, which was a happy surprise for Weekley and the cast. There was a lot of play with voices, noises instruments, and music, even items in the rehearsal room. “One of my favorite exploratory games we played that fed into so many moments throughout the show, was to have the witches create sound pieces together, each adding in and taking away parts,” Rachel told me. “We explored how much movement and behavior is informed by sounds in a space, or by sounds we create together.”
Movement played a major factor in the staging of the show too. The playing space is very intimate and brought along its own fun challenges. “There is a lot of imagery, and playing with concepts of magic around props and costumes,” Weekley explained, “what can be seen, or who can be seen when? And so much of that storytelling is very slight movements of movement throughout the entire play.” Together with the ensemble, Rachel sought how to use movement to combat this question and more. “To create an object onstage that is visible to the audience, but is invisible within the story adds an extra challenge to what seems to be more simple moments in this script,” Weekley told me, “how do you not see something with your body and your eyes that are physically there? But those are the moments when they are truly crafted, that everything clicks into place and you see the magic.”
The dual casting comes with some expected, specific challenges like rehearsing the play as if doing two productions with equal time allotted to both versions. For Rob, a challenge was finding balance and encouraging unique elements to be discovered for both. “That’s also been one of the most joyous aspects of this process,” Bradvica said, “because when we do flip it, so many new things get discovered that add depth to both versions of the show. Relationships change the meaning, actions and intentions change dramatically, the prophecy itself, the crux of the show, adds whole new layers to these characters, So it’s a blessing and a curse, but mainly a blessing.”
The switch brings about some modern, topical relevance too, especially when it comes to female leadership: How effective are they as leaders? Can gender limit women to succeed? What about their husbands? Bradvica explains further how flipping the genders in Macbeth brings some of these questions to the forefront, but in a “more meaningful way than as a dismissal of a woman’s ability to lead: What do the other characters think about a female-presenting Macbeth as their leader? What is a male presenting Lady Macbeth’s role in this world that so clearly favors male leadership?”
Rachel also talked about the politics around the perception of gender in the play. “Women characters in a standard production of Macbeth are often viewed as evil or expendable,” Weekley said, “what I wanted to do with the physical life is re-examine how this feminine power is viewed as evil and by whom? Are the witches evil? Or is Macbeth merely afraid of them? How are women permitted to move to still be seen as feminine? Is that the evil, that is perceived?” For women, is the answer stepping out of one’s own gender constraints? Or is it that a femme presenting person, feeling empowered with their own bodies without anyone else's approval, threatening? “As a nonbinary person working on this play,” Weekley said, “this spoke deeply to me and inspired a lot of the original research and movement explorations with which we started working.”
Then comes the difficulties the two actors who are trusted to play both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, Elizabeth O. Keith, and Ryan Marcone, would surely face in this dual production. “Maybe the most obvious is the challenge of just learning the extra lines,” Marcone side, “both parts are bears on their own, but to do both in this particular cutting of the play requires Elizabeth and myself to learn roughly half of the total text of the show, and keep those two entirely different tracks separate in our heads, which is certainly a joy but also a steep challenge.” The two did have to learn and play both parts, which are each demanding in their own right, but with challenges come joyful discoveries and exploration? “Over the course of rehearsals, we have been able to look at the real words of the play, twist them and play with their meanings,” Keith said, “and allow the show itself to morph and take on a renewed life.” Keith also said that a challenge was “keeping the characters and their unique ideas separate without too much of one bleeding into the other,” but she states that ultimately she has developed positive tools to add to her actor toolbox.
The process of creating a whole new physical world with Rachel and the ensemble has only added to the context of the play, adding a modern sense and even changing the actors’ perceptions of their characters. “Having Rachel and the Weird Sisters essentially devising the rules of the world in which the play occurs has allowed all of us to take certain liberties and risks that aren't common in traditional Shakespearean work,” Keith said. “I would say the choice to try and take the production out of any specific place and time, so that we could make as broad-reaching of a statement about humanity as a whole has definitely been a different approach,” Marcone told me, “as well as doing the show in the round and in front of only forty people per night.”
The two Macbeth actors said that the most surprising part of the whole experience was how differently they ended up relating to these powerhouse roles. “Considering the perspectives of either partner, finding similarities and differences in the way they view one another, has brought to the foreground some of the rare moments of tenderness that are offered by the play, reminding us that these are two people who love each other perhaps not well, but passionately.” The process of thoroughly diving into both roles would only lead to a deeper exploration of the relationship at the core of the play. “It can be easy to pass over, but it is quite a unique situation to focus on two characters in a Shakespeare play who are in a functioning and successful marriage, and aren't just seeking to get into one,” Marcone explained, “and they're partners who really, really do love one another. In digging into the play, I've found that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are more likable and relatable than maybe we've given them credit for. These are two people who are desperately, passionately devoted to one another and to trying to become the ideal version of themselves worthy of the esteem their partner holds them in.” It is a rare opportunity to be able to play both sides of a relationship and conflict. It can only bring two actors closer, in turn, profoundly affecting the portrayal of a relationship between the two characters.
Since exploring gender politics is the overall theme and plight of this production I wanted to know how both Ryan and Elizabeth felt having the opportunity to explore both perspectives. “The play is so fundamentally rooted in old-school sexism,” Keith said, “Lady Macbeth's ‘unsex me here’ line, saying she cannot be strong while she is still a woman, Macbeth's perpetual fear of his manhood being challenged) that reversing the genders already flips the show onto its head with minimal effort from myself or Ryan.” Switching the genders and having Macbeth played by a woman on some nights and Lady Macbeth by a man on some nights reveals, “so much about the Macbeths as a couple and their relationships to everyone else in the play,” Marcone said, “I think it affects how we view Lady Macbeth when I'm playing the role as a frustrated, socialite, stay-at-home husband who feels inferior to a wife who is the main breadwinner and provider of the household. I think it affects how we view Macbeth when Elizabeth is playing the role and she becomes at odds with our (also female) Queen Duncan, etc”
Having sat in on a rehearsal, it became clear to me that the entire ensemble and production team are really excited to share the elements that they have explored in the play. Here’s what director Rob Bradvica had to say: “I want the audience to ask questions! I want to bring the audience into this world we’ve built, the Witches’ world essentially, and I want them to experience deeply complex moments of love and hatred, of fate and chance, of cyclical violence and how our bloody past informs our future. I want to inspire discussion.”
Rachel Weekley also hopes the audience leaves feeling a little unnerved. “I hope it's a little unsettling and I hope that it's moving. I come to the theater to feel connected, to my world, to myself, and to other people. I think the sweet spot where you can really reach out to people and make connections is when everyone feels a little vulnerable, but cared for.”
As for the Macbeths, Elizabeth O. Keith hopes that this new telling, “brings to light the fundamental differences between what we mean when we say ‘man’ and ‘woman’ as opposed to ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine.’ How much of what we ascribe to masculinity or femininity is rooted in the underlying power struggles of our society, and in what ways has this binary perpetuated and upheld a system of violence? When we see these characters reach toward one another, and be kept perpetually apart by their belief that they are lacking in what the other has, how can they escape that cycle of conflict?” Ryan Marcone hopes that the audience sees the relationships between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in a new light too. “I hope it reveals aspects of this story and these characters that had been buried before. I hope the intimacy of it makes us stare the ugliness of cyclical and personal violence in the face. And I hope people leave viewing the play, not as this otherworldly, supernatural, archaic story of spooks, magic, and madness, but as an all-too-familiar journey into what we're willing to do for those we love and just how slight a push we would all need to listen to that voice in the back of our head that tells us we deserve more than we've been given.”
Vulcan Theatre Company’s production of Macbeth will be performed at Access Theater from March 11th until the 15th. You can go see the traditional gender telling March 11th, 13th, and 14th, or the flipped depiction on March 12th, 14th, and 15th. Or perhaps see both tellings? More information is available on Vulcan Theatre Company’s website https://vulcantheatre.com.
MACBETH
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Robert Bradvica
Assistant Director - Mikaila Baca-Dorion
Stage Manager - Natalie Chernicoff*
Movement Director - Rachel Weekley
Violence Choreography by Dispatch Combat Collective
CAST
Bryce Crumlish - MALCOLM
MaryKate Glenn - WITCH 1
Elizabeth O. Keith - MACBETH/LADY MACBETH
Caroline Lyons - QUEEN DUNCAN
Ryan Marcone* - MACBETH/LADY MACBETH
Bailey Newman - WITCH 2
Carly Polistina - ROSS
Charlie Rodriguez - BANQUO
Rachel Weekley - MACDUFF
Jeanna Zenz - WITCH 3
*Artists appear courtesy of the Actors' Equity Association.
Photo Credit- Will Cecil
Niki Hatzidis is the Features Editor for OnStage Blog. She is an actor, writer and award-nominated playwright based in New York City. NikiHatzidis.com