Macbeth

E. Scott Shaffer's elaborate, dungeony set for Rancho Santiago College's "Macbeth" is bookended by two friezes, both depicting tormented souls emerging from some otherworld. The sculptures can be seen as foreshadowing for the dark magic that marks Shakespeare's intrigue, or as symbol for the monsters that soon will reside in the murderous Macbeth's mind after guilt begins its work. They also seem to promise that this staging may have expansive imagination and verve, but that's not the case.

Shakespeare Orange County's (SOC) handsome staging of "The Tragedy of Macbeth," which opened Friday at the Waltmar Theatre, brings a ceremonial richness to Shakespeare's stark, swift and bloody drama of evil incarnate. But that is not the only icing on this substantial cake.

The sexual politics in Colin Graham's staging of Verdi's "Macbeth" for Opera Pacific dimmed significantly when two new singers took over principal roles Friday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. Rebecca Copley brought vocal and dramatic poise to the role of Lady Macbeth.

A most impressive scenic design by Timothy Mueller graces the stage of Fullerton College's Campus Theatre for its production of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," and it is surrounded by equally impressive technical designs, from lighting (Steven Pliska) to sound (Bradley Enochs), costumes (Mela Hoyt-Heydon) and properties (Robert Sessions). At times it seems a little too impressive, especially during the scene in which the three Witches foretell of Macbeth's rise to the throne and during his tragic fall.

Amid the post-Freudian scramble to understand the true self, how often do we pause to consider the possibility that we might not like what we find? Uneasy self-discovery runs rampant in Empire Red Lip company's "Murdered Sleep: Meditations on Shakespeare's Macbeth" at Glaxa Studios.

Seminole County commissioners in Florida did not mind that a local nightclub was serving up eye of newt, toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog. What they did object to was the fact that the three witches in the club's version of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" were played by naked dancers.

Pier Luigi Pizzi's bold new production of Verdi's "Macbeth" at the San Francisco Opera opens with a striking coup de theatre. The curtain rises on a bleak, essentially empty stage populated by a shadowy horde of skulking figures in black. Their bald heads, wild flaps of white hair streaking down the sides, pierce the mist that rises in mysterious billows from the drastically raked floor. Pizzi's witches are frightening, tangible forces.

Shakespeare's "Macbeth" will launch the Alternative Repertory Theatre's 1994-95 season in September, the company announced Wednesday. The upcoming season, ART's eighth, will also include Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" and Paul Zindel's "The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds," as well as staged readings of Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory" and a work to be named. ART, which operates in a 61-seat storefront venue, has 431 subscribers.

The envelope, please. And the winner for Biggest Grinch of the Year is . . . Don Shirley. After venting a seemingly inexhaustible supply of spleen on the pages of The Times' theater section for so long, his venomous criticisms are now infecting the TV pages. The last straw for me was his vicious attack on "Eye on the Sparrow" ("Sparrow: A Lack of Vision," Dec. 7). Does this man like anything? Does he like theater? Does he like television? Does he like himself? I hope Santa brought him a heart for Christmas.

When the cast of the Acting Company's production of "Kabuki Macbeth" takes the stage at UC Santa Barbara's Campbell Hall Saturday , it won't take long for the audience to see that Shozo Sato, the director, and Karen Sunde, the playwright, have taken a few liberties with Shakespeare's tragedy. For starters, the title character has been transformed from a Scottish general who would be king into a Japanese samurai who's shooting for Shogun.