Macbeth

Ken and I saw Cheek by Jowl’s production of Macbeth last night at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). I purchased the tickets for Ken for his birthday as I had a somewhat fuzzy memory of Ken telling me in high school that Macbeth was his favorite Shakespeare play. Honestly, I was no longer 100% sure that it wasn’t Hamlet that was his favorite, but Hamlet wasn’t playing at BAM and Macbeth was.

It turned out that my memory was correct, and Ken was pleased to receive tickets to his favorite Shakespeare play (along with three seasons of How I Met Your Mother, Ken’s favorite Shakespeare television show) for his birthday on April 4.

I have only seen a play at BAM once before, and Ken hasn’t seen any. We arrived obscenely early because I was nervous about time, so we stopped by the BAM café that was featuring a wonderful happy hour. Food (which was good) was only $5 and beer $3. The ambiance was très modern, which Ken ate up like handsomely designed candy. “We should come here more often,” Ken said. Yes, our bill may have been about a quarter to a fifth of what it would be anywhere else and the café bar was very relaxing with its dim lighting and its architectural mix of brick and steel, I don’t know if $3 beer and a nicely designed space is reason enough to trek to Brooklyn, and I also thought that saying “we should come here more often” when we had never been there before was a little silly (why not say, “I like this, let’s do it again”), but I smiled and nodded because it was Ken’s birthday present.

As I mentioned, I have seen one other play at BAM. I saw Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman, with many a cast member from Harry Potter (Alan Rickman and Fiona Shaw. Okay, only two.) in February, and it was a total bust. The acting was good, and maybe even great, but the play itself is melodramatic to the point of ridiculousness causing the acting, despite amazing reviews, to seem absurd. To tell you briefly, the play is about a former banker under house-arrest for embezzlement and fraud. He and his wife do not speak and have lived under the same roof in disgrace for over 10 years. While I’ll admit some people can hold grudges, there is no way that all characters in the play (including the couple’s son and the wife’s twin sister, who was John Gabriel’s first love) are still bitter to the extent that they are, nor that in one evening, all four of them finally achieve emotional resolution. Further, every other line is overly powerful, trying too hard to be memorable. “Remember me!” the lines seem to say, “I mean something! I am profound!” Let me tell you, plus hours of profundity becomes rather intolerable.

I can safely say that it was not the acting, directing, nor the production’s translation that was the cause of melodrama. The fault is entirely Ibsen’s, which surprised me, as I remembered enjoying A Doll’s House when I read it in high school English class. I read John Gabriel Borkman during the week before I saw the play, and what I read was ridiculous. The Abbey Theatre performance at BAM was better than my mind’s interpretation, so that was a pleasant surprise, but not pleasant enough to keep my friend from leaving during intermission and myself to debate walking out as well.

Fortunately, Macbeth was enjoyable, and Ken was pleased with his gift. I think he may have acted more excited that he really was because he knew that I was worried that I had not gotten him a good enough birthday present. I didn’t really know if a play was something he would want to go to or not, Ken did a good job to assure me that he was excited to go and that he had enjoyed it thoroughly.

Am I going to tell you about Macbeth? It was good, and (spoiler alert) everyone died.