Actors from the London Stage return to Washington Hall to present Shakespeare's "Macbeth" this week
By CHRISTIE BOLSEN
Scene Writer
Before long, five mysterious, ambitious and guilt-ridden characters will be invading campus with a blend of witchcraft and murder, deception and revenge.
No, they are not fugitive convicts attempting to corrupt legions of wholesome Catholic students; rather, they are exceptionally talented and inimitable performers who will be breathing innovative life into William Shakespeare's riveting masterpiece, "Macbeth." Actors From The London Stage will return to Notre Dame, its home and always the first appearance in its tours of colleges and universities across the country.
AFTLS was born in Europe when Professor Homer Swander of the University of California, Santa Barbara began knocking on the dressing room doors of actors after performances and inviting them to speak to his class the next day. He had been taking his students on theatre trips to England since 1967, and learned that few teachers had expressed interest to the actors about class visits before.
The thespians were not only glad to comply, but also knowledgeable and eloquent about their art.
In the 1970s, Swander arranged for the Royal Shakespeare Company to visit Santa Barbara for two weeks during its U.S. tour.
The next year, he included other universities, the visits becoming popular and successful. In the spring of 1976, a meeting was held in order to create a permanent organization, and eventually AFTLS evolved from these beginnings.
Originally named Actors in Residence, the name changed to Actors From the London Stage when actors began joining from other companies.
Now, AFTLS presents actors from companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, Shakespeare's Globe and other prominent theatres in England. In 2000, AFTLS changed its North American home and touring base from the University of North Carolina to Notre Dame.
AFTLS strives to change the methods of teaching Shakespeare in the classroom, and to make exciting professional actors accessible to colleges and universities. Bruce Alexander, who depicts the title character in the upcoming production, says that AFTLS is open to what the professors want them to teach.
The actors teach mostly non-theatre classes, usually English courses, but rarely acting classes. Their purpose is to give students the experience of saying the lines, instead of sitting at a desk and reading them.
"We want to show people what it's like to make the script come alive," Alexander said. Aside from in the classroom, AFTLS brings Shakespeare to life through four performances. Alexander hopes to achieve a different level of viewing for audiences.
"[Audiences] actually find that rather than watching a play, they hear it," Alexander said. The Elizabethan spectators used to describe `hearing' plays … the audience's imagination is freed up," Alexander said.
Playgoers expecting a traditional play will experience entirely original theatre, due to the unique cast and unusual rehearsal process.
Regardless of how many characters comprise the written play, AFTLS has only five actors to star as all the roles.
This may mean that an actor has seven or eight parts, but they never cut text out of the play to accommodate role changes more easily. Since there are so few actors for so many roles, nobody goes offstage to change costumes or character; the role changes occur onstage.
Another significant divergence from commonplace theatre is that there is no director who guides the rehearsals. The actors direct themselves, with one important exception.
"We like to say, rather pompously perhaps, that Shakespeare is the director," Alexander said.
The performers refer to the text whenever a question arises about how to execute a scene, and over a five-week period they prepare in this independent manner.
Their goal is to stimulate the imaginations of the audience, and they undertake this mission by allowing the play to speak for itself and not incorporating any extraneous ideas. Alexander describes the production as "minimalist," since sets and props are not carried along on the seven-week tour.
Anyone who has seen AFTLS in action during previous performances, most recently during "A Midsummer Night's Dream," is familiar with its simple, focused style of storytelling. Jane Arden, the actress who depicts the highly complex Lady Macbeth, describes the rehearsal process as having five directors — each of the five actors.
"We have no preconception regarding the production: i.e. set, costume, location, time," Arden said. "It is decided in the rehearsal room by an organic and democratic process, dictated by Shakespeare's script. We work from the inside out. The benefit of this is that the story is told simply and clearly and the product is not muddied by `design concepts'… each actor has explored every scene. He [or she] has had a responsibility that does not happen in a conventional rehearsal process … With such a small group of actors we cannot afford to have a weak link — so the casting process is thorough," Arden said.
The actors, who "relish the language," according to Arden, keep the attention on the emotions extracted from the actual play itself and not outside factors. The result is that the audience can see "Macbeth" as never before, and perhaps leave Washington Hall with new appreciation for Shakespeare's tragedy.
The actors carry the production with the interpretation and execution of their characters' flaws, charisma and transformations.
In the instance of the manipulative Lady Macbeth, who is so murderous that she prays to the gods to fill her with "direst cruelty" and ridicules her husband at one point for being "too full of the milk of human kindness," Arden faces the task of portraying not only a ruthless and power-driven woman, but also the intricate dynamics of a shifting persona.
"The importance is to show the whole picture and to portray the inconsistencies of Lady Macbeth, which make her human," Arden said.
Alexander sees a similar importance in portraying Macbeth, who he feels demonstrates real qualities and dilemmas.
"What an ordinary person!" Alexander said. "We can all actually make decisions that affect the rest of our lives, we've all been in that situation …[Macbeth] finds himself stuck on a roller coaster," Alexander added.
The storyline of "Macbeth," which begins with thunder, lightning and three hideous witch sisters whose prophecies serve as the catalyst for a sequence of vicious murders, features severed heads displayed on sticks and characters being ripped from the womb.
As the action opens, the king of Scotland, Duncan, has decided to give Macbeth the title of Thane of Cawdor for his bravery in battle. Macbeth learns of this new title after he and Banquo, a general in the King's army, encounter the witches, who address him as the Thane of Cawdor and king of Scotland.
Here begins the crisis, as Macbeth begins to contemplate killing Duncan in order to fulfill the second prediction. His wife, Lady Macbeth, is determined that he should proceed with the backstabbing slaughter and even devises the plan that frames the bodyguards. Haunted by visions, guilt and uncertainty, Macbeth executes the plan while being tormented by his wife for weakness.
The homicidal spree begun, Macbeth is crowned king of Scotland but finds he must continue murdering in order to deflect suspicion about the deaths. After more frightening apparitions and perplexing admonition from the witches, the play ends with mystery and carnage, just as it began.
The presence of the witches may have been what gave rise to the popular belief that "Macbeth" is burdened with a curse, supposedly due to black magic spells in the incantations of the weird sisters.
The superstitious and many inside the profession insist on referring to the play indirectly, lest saying the name inside a theatre should invoke dire evil and misfortune. Popularly known as "The Scottish Play," there are endless accounts of tragic accidents transpiring during production of the play.
According to Alexander, however, the curse has not been discussed amongst the actors. He hopes for, and expects, only a "good, lively evening."
Contact Christie Bolsen at cbolsen@nd.edu
All Scene Stories for Monday, February 18, 2002
