I've seen some great theater lately and last night...

...was not one of those times. Oh, my god, I just saw the worst version of Macbeth ever. To be kind, I'm not going to name names, but to protect the innocent in other recent productions of the same play, I'll say that it was a British company that came to NYC last night, September 14th, and any intrepid researchers out there can try to discover for themselves.

The one good thing about this production is that it proves that American actors really have no disadvantage when it comes to performing Shakespeare - British actors can be equally bad.

Based on a recommendation - which I can now only imagine was based on reputation rather than actual knowledge - plus an enticing ticket discount, I found myself in the lobby of an off-off b'way black box excusing my way through a medium sized crowd of people who - both by their accents and by the fact that they actually applauded when this tragedy was over, (and not out of sheer relief) - I will assume were the friends and family of this 13 member cast, and who were just standing like sheep in this tiny lobby in front of the make-shift box office barring the way for patrons, like myself to pick up tickets, instead of going into the theater, which was open.

I settled in to a relatively comfortable seat and after a delay of only a few minutes, the performance began.

It was immediately clear that these actors had no idea who their characters were, where they were or what they wanted. There was no indication that any of these men were soldiers, nor was there any sense of the danger of what was going on politically, or the with war, or the state of the country. And it was also clear that they hadn't thought at all about who they were to each other. (Their relationships.)

Plagued with "Politeness" - Overall they were dutifully waiting for their scene partner to finish their lines before speaking or moving. For example, when Macbeth enters his castle for the first time, presumably rushing home to his wife, excited to see her, after being in battle, getting promoted, and of course, seeing the witches - sees Lady M., neutrally walks a few steps toward her, stops, waits till she says her line, then he neutrally walks and kisses her. And that's just one of the many staging issues that were probably a combination of bad direction and lack of knowledge on the part of the actor as to what the character really wants or lack of trying to actually get it.

Along those lines, the entrances and exits were horrible. I could almost hear the thoughts going through the actors' heads: "I'm coming on stage now. Here I am. Now I'm acting. Ok, scene's finished. Now I'm going offstage."

The actors were breaking up the verse way too much, losing much of the meaning as well as the poetry of the language. Most of the actors just didn't have the breath support necessary to breathe through the ends of their lines, since most of the pauses seemed to be less of a choice than a chance to take a breath - and the times they did continue with a longer phrase, most weren't able to sustain the sound and it trailed off or they pushed and it got strangled.

The director really didn't help matters - having the witches scratch themselves, make funny faces and noises while crouching and moving distractingly behind the other actors - except when they left the stage, put a different costume over their witch attire and came on as a different character (which looked really silly) or by allowing Macbeth to hold the daggers in plain sight of Lady M and who proceeded to ignore them for many lines until she says, "Why did you bring these daggers from the place?" as if she hadn't noticed them all the while. And then to grab the daggers out of Macbeth's hands by the blades! Oh, my god!

And speaking of weapons - the fight direction did not tell the story - Macduff had Macbeth by the throat with his dagger and didn't kill him. What??? Then they dropped their daggers and proceeded to bang the flats of their swords together. Come on! Have these actors ever seen a sword? I bet my life that neither Macbeth nor Macduff have ever fought with broadsword before. And several actors stepped on (or kicked) the dropped weapons.

I was embarrassed for them.

I would have left at intermission, but there wasn't any. Thankfully it was cut to about 90 minutes. I was the first out the door.

I'm going to see Julius Caesar on Saturday. Hopefully my review will be much different - for all our sakes!