MACBETH
SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL OF ST. LOUIS
KDHX FM
This year's offering from the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis is an energetic, physical reading of Macbeth, one of the grisliest pieces of poetry ever written, and by anybody's standards the most sublimely poetic bloodbath in all of theatrical history.
It takes talented and disciplined actors to make this combination of beauty and violence work, and director Rick Sordelet, renowned as a choreographer of stage fights, marshals the energies of his powerful cast to bring both the action and the poetry vividly to life. Mark Mineart, as Macduff, brings both a virile physical presence and great sensitivity to the role.
The most striking thing about this production, finally, may be that it gives the audience the enormous gift of Shakespeare beautifully conceived and performed.