Macbeth (The Acting Company)

The Acting Company presents Macbeth, the last of Shakespeare’s great tragedies. Combining swift action and soaring poetry, we follow one man’s rash power-play for the crown. Ambition infects Macbeth’s brain like a virus upon hearing three witches predict that he will one day be king. Spurred on by his equally ambitious wife, he murders the good King Duncan. One evil deed leads to the next, unleashing an escalating cascade of violence, guilt, sleeplessness, paranoia and madness.

Macbeth reflects on his actions in some of the most sublime soliloquies in the Shakespearean canon as he rushes headlong towards his demise. This is a poisonous world where, as the witches intone at the very start, “fair is foul and foul is fair,” where values are reversed and nothing is what it seems to be. From the prophecies of the Weird Sisters to the silent appearance of Banquo’s ghost, the supernatural plays a central role in this historically-based tragedy. But so does psychology and Shakespeare focuses a laser like intensity on the disintegrating mental state of the murderous king. With almost no diversionary subplots,Macbeth is thrillingly direct in its stark demonstration of the corrupting power of evil.

The romance and adventure of The Three Musketeers plus the sublime soliloquies of Shakespeare’s Macbeth are offered singly or in repertory by the Tony Award-winning Acting Company.