TRUMPbeth: A Murderous, Maniacal Macbeth for Our Moment

MACBETH: Theater Review

We live in such troubled times that it takes a Shakespeare (in this case, literally) to best express what we’re now facing with the incoming Trump regime: “Something wicked this way comes,” as the Second Witch warns over her steaming, swirling pot. Indeed, it’s “]” in A Noise Within’s first play of 2025, an all too timely retelling of the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon’s classic tragedy Macbeth. William Shakespeare may have shed his all too mortal coil in 1616, but with its murderous mayhem about a maniacal monarch’s seizure of the crown in his quest for absolute rule, ANW has chosen the perfect play for Trump’s power plays. In terms of the Shakespearean canon, Orange Julius Caesar would have been a fitting, clever choice as well, but considering the fact that a convicted felon is now commander-in-chief and – surprise! – the criminal-in-chief is breaking the law pell-mell, the Scottish play ideally comments on our eerie era.

Over the years I’ve experienced many iterations of the oft-presented Macbeth, beginning with Barbara Garson’s satirical Macbird! which adapted the JFK assassination within the drama’s plot points and I saw when I was a boy at the Village Gate. I’ve also seen the Scottish play mounted by Antaeus Theatre and Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum on the live stage, plus screen versions, including Orson Welles’ 1948 film and Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 chilling samurai-set Throne of Blood. Arguably the most famous version of all time was the 1936 Orson Welles-directed Voodoo Macbeth with an all-Black cast that opened to great acclaim at Harlem’s Lafayette Theatre, a production of the Negro Theater Unit of the New Deal’s Federal Theatre Project. A 2022 movie also entitled Voodoo Macbeth recounts the story of the mounting of this daring drama that reset the Scottish play in Haiti, co-starring Jewell Wilson Bridges as Welles and one of L.A.’s finest theater actresses, Inger Tudor, as Rose McClendon.

I cite the above to point out that director Andi Chapman was faced by a creative dilemma: Given the multiple Macbethsover the millennia (well, not quite the right word, but it provided alliteration), how do you create a unique, different rendition that has your personal stamp upon it, making it worth the price of admission for stage stalwarts who have probably seen it all before? How to make something old seem new?

First of all, Chapman opens with some highly cinematic scenes (including Special FX) and there are other similarly stylistic filmic vignettes that are eye-catching and attention-getting. Presumably taking (lifting?) a page from Welles, the play’s non-traditional casting is distinctly diverse in this multi-culti production (reminiscent of Broadway’s Hamilton – or, given the Shakespearean aspect, should we say “Hamlet-on”?). The pounding congas bestow a Caribbean ambiance at times. ANW’s Macbeth also seems to reference the legacy of minstrel shows, as well as that 1970s’ filmic vogue of Blaxploitation pictures. Imagine Pam Grier – or sticking with the Shakespeare analogies, Tamara Dobson, who played the eponymous character in 1973’s Cleopatra Jones – as Lady Macbeth. The zaftig Julanne Chidi Hill incarnates the female lead, dripping with venom as she verbally emasculates her husband Macbeth (Kamal Bolden), egging him on to murder the King of Scotland, Duncan (Alex Morris, a five-time NAACP Theater Award winner), for the offending crime that he wears the crown – and not Macbeth.

Driven over the edge by guilt, the homicidal husband and wife both go mad. The brawny Bolden’s delusions as his character “spots” a spectral Duncan at a banquet table are genuinely disturbing. The not-so-great Thane goes insane – as Henry IV said: “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” Likewise, Hill’s somnambulistic wanderings and delivery of Lady Macbeth’s famous (infamous?) “Out damned spot!” soliloquy are – well – spot on, really blood curdling.

(Their maniacal musings put me in mind of the clearly mentally ill people who are relentlessly thrust upon the public. Kanye’s Super Bowl ad was obviously the product of a disturbed mind – and the fact that the URL he was ballyhooing linked to a website peddling Nazi items was proof of his lunacy. Like Lady Macbeth, Trump has sleep problems (to wit all those 3:00 a.m. nonsensical tweets – one way to stop the unconscious from manufacturing nightmares is to, literally, not sleep). Elon Musk is reportedly “on the spectrum,” and all the money in the world (which, apparently, he appears hell-bent on grabbing, except for the crumbs he tosses his hireling Donald’s way) won’t make what was supposedly an abusive childhood go away, nor make him “cool.” I can’t help but wonder: What does it do America’s collective psyche to be subjected to obviously demented public figures on a regular basis?)

As gripping as Bolden and Hill are as the leads, accompanied by a fine supporting cast, the real standouts in this cast are the three witches (referred to in the playbill as “the Weird Sisters”). With their wild-eyed antics, movements (dance choreography by Indira Tyler), outrageous hair (wig/makeup design by Tony Valdés), apparel (by costume designer Wendell C. Carmichael) and oh yeah, lest we forget, Shakespeare’s immortal dialogue, Joy DeMichelle, Roshni Shukia and Mildred Marie Langford (who doubles as Lady Macduff) are truly terrifying. With their hair-raising romp, this bewitching trio steals the show, which is at its most memorable when they grace the stage with their enchanting presence; DeMichelle, Shukia and Langford deserve to be well-remembered when award season rolls around. The witches’ prophetic, spellbinding scenes alone are well worth the price of admission and lighting designer Andrew Schmedake conjures up some wicked, spectral, mood-inducing chiaroscuro for them and throughout the play.

So does fight choreographer Ned Mochel, who orchestrates duels, fisticuffs and derring-do that are thrilling to behold onstage, in person, up close and personal. (Speaking of which, NOTE TO AUDIENCE: Keep your feet out of the aisles theatergoers, unless you want your tootsies trampled upon by madcap performers racing back and forth from the stage to the rear of the theater.)

Nick Santiago’s projections are professionally rendered, but when they go from gothic architecture and abbeys and castles to New Orleans-type homes with balconies, I was bewildered. Carmichael’s costuming wanders all over the place – from vaguely Scottish Middle Ages garb to suits and ties to confederate uniforms, et al. Maybe a sly wink to the Civil War is apropos given the factional infighting and warfare of Macbeth, but really, the reason why whoever adapted the SCOTTISH (not Dixie) play in such a way is lost on this puzzled reviewer. Maybe I’m just not smart enough to get it, but really, these affectations were just theatrical distractions to moi. This was neither a modern dress Macbeth or period piece per se – pretty confusing. (The text also seemed pared down and the order of some scenes rearranged.) When the drama is so thematically relevant, it doesn’t seem necessary to jazz things up (that reminds me, yes, there’s also jazz music; Jeff Gardner is the sound designer) in order to attract ticket buyers to the umpteenth Macbeth.

Having said all that, despite these quibbles, ANW’s Macbeth provides a bone rattling, thought provoking night (or matinee!) at the thee-a-tuh, and I was really glad I saw it. Bravo! At the end, I wondered about how, like mad King Macbeth (and Pres. McKinley), King Donald and his marauding crowd will get their just desserts when modern Macduffs (Ben Cain) and Malcolms (Randolph Thompson) rouse the masses to save us from what Malcolm denounces as “the snares of watchful tyranny”?

A Noise Within presents Macbeth on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., with 2:00 p.m. matinees on Saturdays and Sundays through March 9 at 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107. For info and tickets: www.anoisewithin.org; (626)356-3121. Free parking is in an adjacent garage.