Shakespearean 'Who dun' it' takes stage

Who dun' it? Shakespearean critics revel in the debate of trying to pin down who's responsible for the blood shed in "Macbeth." Lady Macbeth? Macbeth's own ambition and greed? The three Weird Sisters?

Shakespeare's 1606 text provides compelling evidence for all these possibilities and more. Evren Odcikin '02's production, playing tonight through Saturday at Theatre~Intime, lands strongly on the side of the three Weird Sisters. In Odcikin's production the witches eerily infiltrate all aspects of the text on stage.

Set against a backdrop of violence, greed and political intrigue, Shakespeare's tragedy follows the rise and fall of the all-too-human thane Macbeth. Led on by the prophecies of the three Weird Sisters, and the insistence of his wife, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth kills King Duncan to attain the throne. Although this murderous couple seizes the throne, their guilt slowly leads them to madness and finally to death.

The play opens onto "the heath," where the three witches (Bibiane Choi '03, Katie Flynn '02 and Liz Berg '04) slink and creep around the stage, twisting and contorting their bodies around one another and up against the outer walls of the set in a seductively disturbing dance. Their choreography (designed by Liriel Higa '02) throughout the play wonderfully conveys their otherworldly natures. At times they move like old crones, at other times they seem to be part animal as they lick and scratch their haunches. At certain points they also seem like marionettes whose limbs are jerked to and fro by the evil, unseen, puppet master, Hecate, Queen of the witches.

Odcikin's production also suggests that all of the other characters are puppets of the three weird women. As the witches' prophecies come true, the witches chime in with the characters' lines to hammer home the echo. Odcikin's character doubling also enhances the impression that the witches have a hand in everything. Without changing costumes, the witches step in for a host of subsidiary characters such as messengers, nameless warriors and Duncan's innocent children. These characters may only have small roles, yet they provide information to the main characters that drives the plot forward.

As a result, the witches seem to play a large role in orchestrating Macbeth's downfall, haunting Odickin's entire production. During intermission, Witch no. 3 sat less than a foot away from me on stage, glaring at me, picking a scab and scratching her legs.

Macbeth (Kurt Uy '01) and Lady Macbeth (Kate Callahan '01) both deliver seductively convincing performances. This erotically charged pair frequently and passionately molest each other.

Lady Macbeth's "unsex me here" speech, seems to be delivered in the midst of an orgasm.

In a terrifying sequence, we witness her climaxing on the excitement of the violence to come. Uy also undergoes an entrancing transformation from a Macbeth who needs an over-eager wife to provide him with the impetus to kill Duncan to a crazed creature who preaches and practices the notion that blood begets blood.

The rest of the cast fleshes out the stellar production with their strong performances.

The porter and doctor (professor Thomas Roche) may only appear for a couple of scenes but when they do, they tease out every nuance or nugget of sexual innuendo. He alerts the audience to the plethora of double-entendres, reminding us of the richness of Shakespeare's text.

The minimalist costumes were the only jarring aspect of the production. All of the characters wore ragged black bottoms and gray tops. The witches were the exception and were bound up in mismatched rags. The generic costumes both forced you to focus on the acting and made the blood on the hands more striking. Yet, I was constantly aware and bothered throughout the play that the actors were running around wearing sweatsuits. Yet, the costumes were minor and did not really harm the deliciously creepy production.