Stage Review: Bard incoherent by starlight

Vanessa Morosco and Tony Molina portray the Macbeths in Tennessee Shakespeare Company's production of "Macbeth" outdoors at the Wooden O Amphitheatre in Shelby Farms Park, now playing through Oct. 23.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company abides by the notion that staging the Bard's works en plein air -- as the painters might say -- brings us closer to an authentic Elizabethan playgoing experience.

In days of olde, the Lord Chamberlain's Men would traverse the countryside and drop mad verse in outdoor courtyards or boomy guild halls. We can assume that the actors had voices powerful enough to be heard over whatever acoustic obstacle or peasant revolt interrupted the performance. (We also assume that audiences were cool with all the other technical issues that theater companies had to get around, such as the law barring females from the stage. If you can get over a male Juliet, you can cope with a handful of actors playing 20 different roles.)

In modern times, and in marvelously constructed theaters, we've gotten to know Shakespeare on more intimate terms. His work can be whispered. It can be subtle, realistic. It can be given new context. Or not.

Authenticity of volume is about the only consistent feature of Tennessee Shakespeare Company's latest production of "Macbeth," running in the newly refurbished Wooden O Amphitheater in Shelby Farms.

Of the venue, swathed in the gorgeous weather of last Friday's opening, who could complain? The amphitheater's spacious bowl is actually quite a suitable container for sound and fury. The buzz of the night insects and an o'er hanging moon added a compelling environmental layer to one of Shakespeare's great horror-show tragedies, full of witches and gloom and a baby's head with an arm sticking out of it -- more on that oddity to come.

The cast, drawn from the ranks of professional actors, is genuinely loud; no microphones needed. It's amazing they don't all sound like Tom Waits when the hurlyburly's done. But with so much attention to delivering the text, the characters suffer from fits of exaggeration.

What gets buried amid the swordplay, swagger and emotional zeal is the question of agency, which is the real tragedy of "Macbeth" and not all the bloodshed caused by a dysfunctional marriage.

Macbeth, as you'll recall, is informed by a coven of witches that he'll become king one day. His wife, Lady Macbeth, suggests he speed the process along by killing the Scottish king in his sleep. Is Macbeth's fate preordained? Has he been cursed? Is he pressured by his overbearing wife? Or are others merely helping him justify his own ends? What is the lesson to be learned, the warning to be heeded?

I felt not the slightest concern for these questions as Tony Molina Jr. -- a sanguine actor who audiences may remember as an earnest Cassio in "Othello" -- plays the henpecked title role. Vanessa Morosco, who also charmed as Emilia in "Othello," is never far from hysterics as an intensely weird Lady Macbeth. Perhaps because of the need to amplify everything, the relationships in this production never reveal any deeper psychology.

Director Dan McCleary makes some confusing choices in his "Macbeth," which takes place in medieval Scotland judging by Bruce Bui's knightly costumes and the flimsy wooden set painted to look like a castle. I can't explain why the witches carry urns or why there is a baby's head with an arm sticking out of its forehead, but it looks significant and silly at the same time, like an omen from "The Omen."

The B-movie comparison is more apt in the final scene, when Macbeth and Macduff's sword battle graduates from wooden poles to one sword, then two swords, then really long swords. This plays out to a soundtrack of bagpipes performing "Amazing Grace," which may strike some as funny for its fervently Scottish flavor, but also because the song is an anachronism from the 18th Century. Was the theme from "Braveheart" too over-the-top?

Tennessee Shakespeare Company certainly has the brains, talent and experience to create a terrific Shakespeare in the Park series. But perhaps some "authenticity" could be sacrificed in the name of coherence.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company's "Macbeth"

7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 7:30 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 23 at the Wooden O Amphitheater in Shelby Farms. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 day of show. Call 759-0604.

© 2011 Go Memphis. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.