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This post was delayed by two separate pothole incidents that destroyed sections of my car as I was trying to get to see the Parkway Academy’s production of Macbeth last night in West Roxbury, on a night of heavy rain and bitter chill. Just about right for this most bleak of Shakespeare’s plays - and braving the elements was more than rewarded by the play that greeted us.

I’ve seen Shakespeare done in all sorts of ways (several years working alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company in England will do that to you) and rarely have I been as impressed as I was last night. That is no exaggeration. Anna Portnoy directed her class (from PATH’s own class of ‘09) in a production that was imaginative and felt authentic in the most vital way. By this I mean that no single person was hamming it up or grabbing attention, because they seemed to recognize that they were part of a whole, and they were determined to bring before us issues to do with ambition, power, corruption, and the human price of such issues.

The production’s energy and imagination is signaled right from the start when the main themes are conveyed to us in a Prologue. Two actors come on stage (Christian Gonzalez and someone whose name I cannot find in the program, alas) and begin to talk about a play they’ve seen, as if they can’t recall it’s title. They talk about it in terms of themes - and each time they mention one they spray-can it on the wall - so the words Power, Murder, Ambition and others appear, until they seem to recall the title and as graffiti-artists place “Macbeth” in red in the center. They were to return between each scene, telling the audience what’s just happened and what’s about to happen - and I was entirely won over by them. It’s a brilliant way of guiding the audience through the play; it also felt real. These two truly wanted everyone to see what was going on, and they helped to keep us focused.

A side note here: Excellent theatre depends upon actors who do not look as if they are ‘acting’ at all. The director’s job, therefore, is to find actors who can truly ‘be’ a part without having to strain. This production achieved that aim especially well with these two young men, and it was a mark of the production as a whole. It could, if done differently, have killed a production. Instead it became one of the great features.

But perhaps I’m getting too theoretical there. Certainly, there were outstanding performances - performances my memory will treasure: Macbeth (Marques Latimore) was central, and when, towards the end, he sat back in his green leather chair with his extravagant red furred cloak and crown we could feel fully all the tawdry splendor of every tyrant that has ever lived in a state of anxious denial. Lady Macbeth (Jessica Lopez) gave us a strong, sexy presence with the ability to make her voice project to the very furthest regions of the auditorium, without losing subtlety, and showing us anew how a man can be manipulated by an ambition he sees in the eyes of a lover. Eli Seeman’s Banquo was a real presence on the stage, and when he appeared in the ghost scene his smouldering look of accusation added the final touch to a polished performance and allowed that scene, with Macbeth’s distraught reaction, to triumph. Audrey Guerrero’s Lady Macduff also springs to mind as a strong presence on the stage, such that when she is killed we feel her as a loss, as an innocent victim of tyranny.

It’s possible to name everyone for there was no weak link. I’ll just point out some high points for now. The Murderers were, for the first time in any production I’ve ever seen, genuinely frightening. Rocking slightly on their feet as Banquo approaches, their almost balletic rhythm felt utterly threatening, their crowding around Banquo became truly dangerous, and Fleance’s escape did feel as if it was by a hairsbreadth. Particularly impressive were the step-dancers, who stamped their complex and mesmerizing rhythms down the aisles as they became Birnam wood, moving towards Dunsinane, bringing Macbeth’s end. I’ve seen this difficult scene played many different ways over the years. This was the first time I found myself catching my breath, moved more than I can say, by an action that conveyed so much so economically - the whole world rising up to face tyranny.

None of these actors had ever acted in anything before. PATH does not have an established drama club or a tradition of putting on productions. Budgets have precluded that activity. One might say that they were all Innocents at this. But, dear readers, I have to say that what they produced last night was moving; it was Magic.

And that is worth more than I can say.

Congratulations to the whole cast, to the staging and lighting and sound people (really impressive choice of music, by the way) to the costume makers and families who pitched in, to the director, assistant directors, and to the marvelous spirit of cooperation and open friendliness that was generated - which the audience could feel, too. You gave us something marvelous in that performance, and we are indebted to you.