Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Macbeth and Triumph of Love, presented by Redd Tale Theatre Company, are running till the end of August at Nicu’s Spoon Theater on West 38^th Street. It is a nice opportunity to see classical plays done, especially Triumph of Love, which is an uncommon play to produce.

Triumph of Love was originally written by French playwright Pierre de Marivaux and this production is a new translation by Virginie Maries. It centers around Princess Leonide (played by Lynn Kenny) who dresses up as a man and a woman and gets three people to fall in love with her. Overall, the production is very captivating. The highlights are Virginia Bartholomew (Leontine) and Tom Cleary (Hermocrate). They both are very convincing in falling in love with Ms. Kenny (who is one of the most convincing-looking boys in her scenes where she has to be a boy). They both also had very unique musicality in their voices. One major distraction, however, was that each actor barely ever broke eye contact with his fellow actors. It felt a little uncomfortable as an audience member and that the cast was trying too hard to prove that they were “acting.”

Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s more well-known tragedies about the Scottish general Macbeth who kills the king in order to be king. Macbeth is played by James Stewart (who also appears as Dimas in Triumph of Love). He does a good job of portraying the flaws of Macbeth, but he is not entirely convincing in conveying the fact that Macbeth really is not such a bad guy. The audience does not have a lot of sympathy for Macbeth when bad things begin to happen to him because it feels as though he deserves it. Ms. Bartholomew plays Lady Macbeth and does a very strong job. Her build in the speech where she asks the spirits to “unsex” her is especially powerful. The witches in this production (played by Merrie Jane Brackin, Jodi Mara, and Melissa Smith) are used extensively to communicate the story and the three women make their own individual vocal and physical choices, but they also have a good sense of unity with each other.

Overall, the diction needed to be stronger and it did not always feel as though the cast members truly understood that they were discussing important and heightened things, such as fate and ambition. Morgan Auld, who plays minor roles, had the best diction in the cast and his speech about the benefits of drinking was a highlight of the show.

While there were some problems with both productions, it is still very nice to see classical plays presented. Macbeth and Triumph of Love are two plays that should not be forgotten as more and more jukebox musicals are produced. Support the old classical plays and you’ll feel a lot smarter and culturally enriched for having done so.