Macbeth Lincoln center

It is with a heavy heart I declare this as the worst play I’ve ever seen. I’m a huge fan of Macbeth and who didn’t love Ethan Hawke in Reality Bites… but this was a disaster. I, the English teacher, actress, poet, convinced my boyfriend that Shakespeare wasn’t the boring, incomprehensible droll from high school. I actually made him excited when I explained how the power of language preformed by true thespians makes the meaning of the verse completely accessible.
About ten minutes into the first act, I noticed that all of the actors were speaking too fast, as if they were trying to recall their lines because they had just looked at them backstage. In addition, even with microphones, most of the cast wasn’t able to project their voices in this small theater with great acoustics. The unintelligible language mixed with the costume and set designers choice of a primarily black stage, props, and clothes, and the unaffected acting, made everyone in the theater yawn. We left at intermission as did many of the like minded including the well dressed elderly woman who put it best when she said to her friend (in a cliché Long Island lockjaw) «I’m sorry, it’s boring.»

If you’re a slave to the NYT’s and their often dreary reviews, «Macbeth» is better than the smear-​fest given to this production by that one newspaper. First of all, they call this production «dark and dismal,» as if that’s a bad thing. You can’t get much darker than performing «Macbeth» on a giant Pentagram guys, and that should be a good thing. The stagecraft in «Macbeth» turns witchcraft into some pretty awesome stage magic and for that, I’m always grateful. If I watch a play and have even a moment of «how the hell did they do that,» it makes me happy. «Macbeth» offers plenty of those moments. The NYT’s did have one thing right, this production is all about the three witches, which is an interesting directorial choice and at least for me, it worked.
While Ethan Hawke wouldn’t be most people’s first choice to play the Scottish King and that choice baffles most, he more than holds his own in this beautifully lit production which also includes an excellent sound design, superb set design and supporting cast. Okay, we could all do without slow-​mo fight choreography, and in this production you do feel jipped in the fight scene between Macduff and Macbeth, but Daniel Sunjada’s powerful counter-​performance is a nice pay-​off. John Glover steals every sleazy, dirty, fabulous moment he’s on stage and I wouldn’t want it any other way. If the NYT’s wants a candy-​coated, happy, banal «Macbeth,» good luck with that. As for me, bring on more darkness and spit on me some more guys, I love it.

I went to see Macbeth starring Ethan Hawke with my sixth graders. It was a special screening of all students and educators, and boy it was a lot of fun! There was an interactive portion when one of the witches engaged the audience in a «knock knock» joke. Totally unexpected and much appreciated! This version Macbeth was scary, loud and funny, with great music. I definitely recommend it!

I am shocked by the bad reviews here. I saw it in December 2013 and absolutely LOVED it. I thought Ethan Hawk was amazing and Lady Macbeth played to perfection. I have seen many shows and I was in awe of the costumes here, I loved the final act, it was great to hear so many classic lines delivered so well. Absolutely go see this play!!!

In summary: disappointing snoozefest.
The actors had not practiced their diction or projection so all the lines came out mostly mumbled/​garbled with some exceptions; they also seemed to be speaking on fast forward and btwn that and the mumbling, ¹⁄₃ of the lines were unintelligible.
I started falling asleep about 20 minutes into it, glanced around and saw I was in good company. Luckily the eardrum shattering thundering of the sound effects jolted me awake several times. The last time I fell asleep during a production was in 10^th grade during Les Miserables when I had a case of mono, so this somnolence was truly due to the insipid uninspired acting of the cast.
What a shame.
Ethan Hawke was laughable (I went in excited to see how he would handle the performance) and the witches, while entertaining were so dizzying playing multiple roles that I truly had a hard time following the plot of this well known tale.
We left after the first act (along with many others), and mercifully so, as I heard there was at least another 90 minutes of torture in store for us had we stayed.
Save your pennies… you’ll be better entertained by walking a few blocks north, heading into the Apple store, and trying to livestream a video recording of Macbeth from people who knew what they were doing (1971 Polanski).

I am, by and large, in agreement with David H.‘s review below. First, the good stuff: I thought the set design was extremely well-​conceived, beautiful at times, with scene transitions being fluid and almost no clunky moments. Though I understand David H.‘s comments about being disappointed by the enlarged role of the witches in the play (for which he provides some compelling reasons), I thought that the director’s decision to play up the supernatural/​black-​magic aspects of the play — whatever one may think of that decision — was something this production committed to and executed on impressively. The set, the theatrics and the excellent performance of the lead witch in particular all contributed to creating an overall atmosphere of a curse hanging over Scotland that is finally expunged with Macbeth’s death. This leaves a strong impression. Now, the bad: in a word (or a name), Ethan Hawke. Not following celebrity gossip, I have no idea and don’t care whether he is actually gay, but watching him felt, at times, like the impression one gets when an actor with «gay» speech mannerisms can’t totally free himself of those affectations for purposes of his role. Part of this was because Hawke seemed to have no idea what to do with the character before he fully commits to the dark side, as it were. If in Hamlet (written a bit before Macbeth if I have my chronology right) Shakespeare created a character who constantly overhears his own words and reacts more to the words he himself thinks and says than to any external circumstances in his midst, then in Macbeth, Shakespeare is still exploring the power of words to govern our thoughts and our actions. Macbeth hears what the witches say and can’t get those words out of his mind, and he continues mulling and obsessing over those words until they drive him (together with prodding by Lady Macbeth, of course) to the point of murder and then serial murder. He has, I believe, a higher percentage of lines in this play than any other single character in Shakespeare, and this, combined with the fact that most of the other characters here are deliberately interchangeable, lacking distinguishing features, makes the play into an extended phantasmagoria where the spectator — for lack of anyone else to identify with — is necessarily plunged, along with Macbeth himself, into his increasingly diseased imagination, as he follows the trail of his ongoing logorrhea into ever-​darker places in his own soul. He can’t stop speaking, thinking, hypothesizing, imagining, so that his murderous acts become literal afterthoughts, echoes of his words reified. The prophecies that drive the action of the play — first the prophecy of Macbeth’s becoming Thane of Cawdor and king and later the prophecy of how his downfall will occur, when Birnham Wood comes to Dunsinane and he is killed by a man of no woman born — are, likewise, words literalized into acts. Words in this play are, fittingly, like witches’ spells that take over our minds, spells we cast over ourselves. In this production highlighting the supernatural aspects of the play, I would’ve thought the supernatural power of the words themselves would take center stage. Hawke, thus, should be a showing us a character increasingly engrossed in his own consciousness, fascinated and bewitched by the things he imagines himself capable of until he falls fully under his own spell and transitions from a battlefield hero into a bloody tyrant. Instead, Hawke’s affect early on is often flat, almost bored, as if he has no idea what he is saying or why. This is the LAST play in which words ought to be falling flat. As a result, no transition is shown, as if Hawke is biding his time, bored with the lines Shakespeare burdens him with at the beginning of the play and anxious to get to the «good part» when he gets to rampage and seethe. And indeed, he is a bit better when he has occasion to emote more conspicuously, though even here, having not properly set the stage, he could not totally pull it off. The single most disappointing moments of his performance, however, came with the famed «Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…» soliloquy, perhaps THE greatest poetry in all of Shakespeare. Not having here an anchor in an obvious, one-​word emotion to grasp onto, Hawke fails the test of subtlety once more. The opening lines of the soliloquy sound, again, like Hawke is bored, like the subtext in his mind underlying the «Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow» lines are a gay-​affected rendition of «I’m so over all this murder and rampaging stuff; let’s just get on the next thing.» Afterwards, he prattles through until concluding with a silly and unmotivated pregnant pause between «signifying» and «nothing» at the end. «What does it all mean? Oh, that’s right … nothing.» But just because it all means nothing in Hawke’s limited imagination shouldn’t deprive us, as spectators, of all the glorious SOMETHING Shakespeare gave us to relish and cherish for all time.

I think «odd» is the best way to describe this production.
I read Macbeth in high school. I also performed a few scenes for my English class – yes I was Macbeth and really into it, complete with a sword made out of cardboard.
Anyway, I digress. My plus one wanted to go see this. And I was a little surprised because I’m normally the one proposing events like this.
We ended up getting cheaper tickets for those under 30 and were seated in the back of the orchestra on the right. The stage layout kind of reminded me of The Globe so if there were scenes happening further back on the stage, we would only have a partial view.
I’ll admit, I’m not a Shakespeare aficionado and I know there’s a lot to interpret with the lines and I should have read a Macbeth refresher before diving right in… I felt like I was confused most of the time with what was going on. And then during intermission, when the man sitting near us spoke to his friend about how disappointed he was with the play, I knew I wasn’t the only one. Then I looked on Unilocal and realized I REALLY wasn’t the only one.
The only plus side is Ethan Hawke. Plus, I love the Lincoln Center. My plus one enjoyed the play so I guess it was a good night for one of us!

On the way to the theatre, my wife read me David H’s review below and I thought he sounded like a pretentious aficionado. Unfortunately (sincerest apologies to David H.), he was absolutely spot-​on. I can’t match his credentials, but I’ve been a Shakespeare buff for most of my life and this was simply the worst I have ever seen. Ditto all of David H’s comments on the production itself. Shame on LCT for loaning its prestige and stage to such dreck. Greater shame on the director for meddling with material that’s obviously way over his head. I’ve never left a play before the end in my life but, at intermission, my wife and I took one look at each other and headed home. LCT should cancel this run and refund everyone’s money. One exception I’d have to add to the above was Lady Macbeth — the only person on stage who appeared to have any inkling of what she was doing.

While I’m not a huge Shakespeare fan, the play was very good. I liked the lighting. We got the tickets at TKTS for 50% off and had seats in row P, Orchestra level.

BRILLIANT! Being a huge Shakespeare fan I figured I would be overly critical of this play but I was captivated the entire time! The cast is amazing and Ethan Hawks performance is mind blowing. Anyone who could dress, act, and speak In a way that makes the audience feel like they are watching an original Shakespeare play from the time deserves two thumbs up!
I had no complaints during the show, but my thoughts afterwards had me reconsidering certain things. Some of the scenes they chose to explain the story were questionable. I felt as some of the scenes are crucial In the play itself but had no place in getting to the point of the story.
Overall I had an amazing time! And I want to make it a point to say that paying extra for he better seats are worth it! I felt as if so many people on the sides were struggling to see what was going on.