Carolina Rodriguez and Joesy de Palo (Photo by Molly Carpenter)
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Moving Arts Theatre Space
Through July 29
While Scottish annals record a king named Macbeth in the 11th century, he bears scant resemblance to the traitorous thane who murdered his way to the crown in Shakespeare’s play.
Scholars believe Shakespeare may have fashioned this story partly to gain favor with England’s James I, Elizabeth I’s Scottish successor who ascended the throne in 1603. James was a man deeply invested in the idea of the divine right of kings, and so likely to support a work where a usurper gets his just due. The new monarch (his name forever associated with a common rendering of the Bible) was also an advocate of burning witches; in 1597, he released Daemonologie, a treatise about witchcraft which informed the reader of how to identify a witch (who were mostly women) and cruelly murder them.
James’s predilections aside, Shakespeare’s play reflects a political and social order where history was forged by the rich and powerful — mostly men, but with a few exceptions (Elizabeth herself, for one). People of the lower classes had little choice about anything; the vast majority were lucky to have food on the table.
Which brings us to Three Witches, a satiric retelling of the story by playwright Michael Perlmutter, which is directed by Ann Noble and told from the point of view of his play’s titled characters, three impoverished young women who by chance become embroiled in the power struggles of those whom they refer to among themselves as the “manor born.” While I found the highways and byways of its plot overly convoluted, both the play’s premise and its denouement are satisfying.
The witches are three sisters: the eldest, June (Mikki Hernandez), May (Joesy de Palo), her younger sister by a year, and November (Adanna Paul), who is much younger and a special needs person who needs her medicine to avoid the epileptic fits that come upon her without them. The siblings are “white” witches, meaning they’re not concerned with casting dark spells on anyone but instead traffic in roots and herbs, mostly to heal.
But one day a more highly connected witch, Hecate (Alexandra Hussman), comes to them with a request to trade on a potentially lucrative opportunity. It seems that Hecate, although a charlatan, is regularly in the employ of Lady Macbeth (Noble), who now wants her to stage a message to her husband, Macbeth (Brian Robert Harris). But Hecate has a prior commitment and cannot be in two places at once, so she offers to pass the job on to the other three witches in exchange for some roots.
As in Shakespeare’s telling, Lady Macbeth is a plotter and schemer, here multiple times more the villain because she’s actually hiring people with no supernatural powers to stage a faux supernatural event to help nudge her basically decent spouse into murder and regicide.
The carrying out of the scheme is commandeered by May, the only sister with a level head. November is slow and sweet, and June, sadly, is an addict of sorts, and ready to get down with any available passing male. Inexperienced with this kind of duplicity, the witches’ efforts to fulfill Lady Macbeth’s commands go awry; later, their endeavors to cover their tracks only lead to more confusion.
Unfortunately, the confusion isn’t limited to the characters on stage. I had difficulty following this central thread of the story, which is interposed with subplots, in particular multiple ones having to do with fractiousness among the siblings. Also, the play often calls for more than one scene to be taking place simultaneously, an undertaking whose difficulty is compounded by the venue’s tiny proscenium. The valiant efforts of the ensemble to keep the story moving while also having to maneuver the set pieces is noteworthy, but contributes to the busyness.
Some of the performances are sound. Especially noteworthy is Carolina Rodriguez as Lady Macbeth’s personal servant, Vanessa, the target of her mean boss’s malicious abuse. Rodriguez plays it with finespun intelligence, submitting because she has to, at the same time registering for us the outrageous immorality of her Lady’s behavior. The character serves successfully as a bellwether for our own reactions.
As May who, breaking the fourth wall, serves as a quasi-narrator, de Palo is engaging, and draws us in before a surfeit of detail overwhelms the evening. Paul captures the sweet innocence of the youngest sister without overdoing it, and Harris is believable as a basically good guy who adores his wife but is nagged by suspicions about her perfidious nature.
The production benefits from its period costuming (uncredited), which compliments the women, and from composer Jeffrey Johnson’s 16th century flavored compositions. These accompany the scene changes and provide the music (performed by Emilie Langjahr and Ryan Kearton, who also appear in minor roles) for a dance sequence.
Moving Arts Theatre Space, 3191 Casitas Ave., Atwater. Sat. and Mon., 8 pm, Sun. 7 pm; thru July 29. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/915504467507?aff=oddtdtcreator Running time: one hour and 50 minutes with an intermission
