Odd Couple

By Gerald Clarke

MACBETH

by William Shakespeare

By rights, this play, like Antony and Cleopatra, should have a double title--something like Macbeth and Wife or Two on the Heath--for Lady Macbeth is fully as important as her husband. Hamlet can get along with a second-rate Ophelia, but if the actress who plays Lady Macbeth is inadequate, or just barely good, the entire play suffers accordingly. That, in brief, is what is wrong with Nicol Williamson's production, which opened at Manhattan's Circle in the Square last week. Andrea Weber may be a gifted young actress, but she is definitely not--or not yet--Lady Macbeth.

Nor is she a match for Williamson, who plays her partner in murder. His Macbeth is skittery and jittery, a neurotic who seems to be in the midst of an identity crisis. It is a fascinating interpretation, which appears to owe something to Richard Nixon, and Williamson manages to make the familiar sound fresh and exciting. In the "Tomorrow" speech, for example, his words come out in spurts, as if they were spoken by a madman, which by that point Macbeth very nearly is. Weber, by contrast, is always predictable, and she seems to know only one way to make a point--loudly.

If Weber is shown up by Williamson the actor, she is let down by Williamson the director, as is the rest of this rather mediocre production. Except for his own performance, Williamson seems to have no coherent idea where he wants to go, and the only clear evidence of a directorial style is speed. The whole evening has a breathless quality, and the actors are in and out in just over two hours. But perhaps, under the circumstances, that is long enough.

--By Gerald Clarke

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