SAN DIEGO — Something wicked this way comes. It's Nicholas Martin's more-foul-than-fair staging of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" under the stars at the Old Globe Theatre's Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.
Just because Victor Garber, a four-time Tony nominee best known for comedy, plays Macbeth, don't expect a "Macbeth" lite. Garber's ambitious thane gets hardly a solitary chuckle out of his spiral into tragedy. Nor do he and Joan McMurtrey's Lady Macbeth get much of a sexual charge out of their scheming.
This is a bleak "Macbeth," but one that's remarkably well-spoken and considerably more detailed than most in its depiction of the dark forces and frightening visions that haunt the protagonist.
Too bad it's closing in early October instead of later in the month. It would make one of the most profound Halloween shows imaginable.
Jeff Ladman's soundtrack begins with a foreboding hum and the clang of bagpipes, which return frequently throughout the evening, wailing in witness to the destruction that's taking place, sometimes accompanied by the boom of timpani.
The three weird sisters play a bigger role in the proceedings than is often the case. Near the top, they appear to slice a snake in half. Later, they're the impresarios of a spook show that's often cut or reduced in less well-endowed productions, joined onstage by the often-absent Hecate and by a series of apparitions that culminates in the parade of Banquo's sons laying claim to the crown, much to Macbeth's distress.
The terrible trio of witches even appears in the background in Macbeth's final scene. His climactic battle with Macduff is staged so that he has Macduff at his mercy but lets him go, so cocky is he about his invincibility. Big mistake. Macduff slaughters Macbeth, front and center.
After Macbeth's head is hoisted on a stake and the survivors have celebrated, the witches come forward to claim the head and toss it into the same pit that has previously served as their caldron and as the port of entry for the ghosts they summoned. Score one for the underworld.
All this gloom and horror could become a bit thick, but Martin understands that "Macbeth," the swiftest of Shakespeare's tragedies, must move. He maintains a brisk pace, assisted by the mobility of Ralph Funicello's walls and staircases.
