Follow-ups seldom meet expectations. I’m not the fan type, but I was so awestruck by Shozo Sato’s 1983 Kabuki Macbeth that I made a keepsake of a little piece of iridescent fabric that had fallen off somebody’s costume and landed in the aisle. I still have it. Sato went on to create kabuki versions of lots of other western classics, but none of them could hold me the way the first did. Because it was the first, and perfect.
Macbeth? Not so much. The new Thane of Cawdor and his wife are doomed for sure by the start of act two. In place of sprites they’ve got witchy Weird Sisters; in place of august fertility goddesses, Hecate. Abandon all hope of delight ye who enter here—though the proceedings get a nice shake of humor thanks in large part to Ian Merrill Peakes’s wry, unorthodox Macbeth.
I don’t know. I could be wrong about that. The Posner/Teller Macbeth at least makes it worth the wondering. v
Through 6/24: Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Tue 5/29-6/12, 7:30 PM, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand, $48-$88.
