note: entire contents copyright 1996 by Larry Stark
Written and Directed by D. W. Ferranti
Original Music by Jim Jones
Lyrics by Ferranti and Jones
Music performed by THE JOINT CHIEFS
Technical Director and Co-Producer, Tony Maciag
Video Footage by Ben Brigham
Costumes by (the Fabulous) Robin Ducot
Sound Effects by Gary Quinton
Lighting by Mark Janowitz and Jeremie Lozier
Band Sound by Kevin Meyer-Golden
Produced by ACME THEATR
C A S T
in order of appearance
Wounded Soldier.........................Don Wood
Witches........................Suzanne McIlvenna
Lynnette Estes
Christine Pelletier
McBeth......................James Felix McKenney
Banquo...........................Alisdair Manson
Ross..................................Paul Scott
Angus..................................Mikey Dee
Duncan.......................Gary Quinton/Wilder
Malcolm.................................Ad Frank
Lennox...............................Dean Fisher
Fleance...............................Blue Lewis
Attendants................Hutch, Declan Geraghty
Lady McBeth............................Fran Pado
Porter................D. W. Ferranti/Brad Scobie
McDuff.............Winston Braman/D. W. Ferranti
Real Stories Cameraman...........Jared Mazzaschi
Hecate.............................Linda Bean P.
1st Murderer.........................Colin Price
2nd Murderer, Seyton..................Rich Casey
Townies.................Ken Zimmerman, Jay Vente
Lady McDuff.....Hilken Mancini/Suzanne McIlvenna
Kid McDuff............................Blue Lewis
Doctor............................D. W. Ferranti
Nurse.............................Robbie Alterio
The Acme Theatr, as they insistently spell it, says their original rock play "McBeth!" is "Shakespeare for the reading impaired" but that is untrue. Writer-Director D. W. Ferranti uses the original play like a backboard off which to bounce campy, slangy rewordings and satirical send-ups. This broad, brash, blaring blast is an over-the-top act of vengeance by people who have hated the play ever since their sophomore year at Boston Latin.
Director Ferranti's concept gallops off in all directions, plugging in whatever gimmick comes to hand. The Thane of Dorchester becomes the Thane of Charlestown, but he kills "King" Duncan to inherit a pure white Celtics jacket. Malcolm and McDuff flee to Providence, and it's the ivy of Harvard that moves against McBeth in the final act. An on-stage model of an Impala and projected video-tapes of highways, live-action video projections of the performance in progress, puny cap-pistols, and amplified music and original songs all war with Shakespeare's words.
The scattergun approach characterizes individual performances as well. First onstage, Don Wood as a dying soldier lurches about spilling pints of stage-blood and growling inarticulately about an after-hockey riot. His approach is chillingly, believably method compared to the pure-camp sendup of the Hallowe'en witches who follow him, complete with dry-ice fog and a polyglot selection of contemptuously faked accents.
James Felix McKenney's McBeth is a scenery-chewing hysteric, while Fran Prado as Lady McBeth flatly rushes Shakespeare's lines and actions, skimming the surface of a straight reading. Alisdair Manson plays Banquo straight until, as his own ghost, he flips into a mimed compendium of the Three Stooges.
The music is amplified and rhythmical. Ad Frank as Malcolm does a puppet-like Irish step-dance while singing his unworthiness to be king. Linda Bean P. plays Hecate as Elvira with a license to talk filthy, and inflates the tiny part with another original song. There's also a long re-cap in song for people who missed act one. For anyone interested in them, the lyrics are printed into the program.
Director Ferranti never met a schtick he didn't like, and this unselective air of exhuberance is both the strength and the failure of this experiment. The pace is breakneck, the bits impressive and embarrassing by turns, and the line between sly satire and simple showing-off is criss-crossed continually. What's missing is a single skewer for the shishkebob.
26 - 27 - 28 January at
MAMA KIN'S LANDSDOWNE THEATRE
36 Landsdowne Street, BOSTON
1(617)536-2100
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