Mad about Macbeth

The three witches in Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival’s Macbeth impressively opened the play. Special sound effects added a synthesized timbre to their voices. Actors crossed the stage with contorted physical movements, dressed in weird costumes—tattered edges, disheveled hair, a witch with a face at the back of her head—setting an eerie tone for one of the Bard’s darkest plays. In the scene where Lady Macbeth (Rebecca Dines) persuades Macbeth to murder King Duncan, her expressions and dialogue delivery were brilliant. The banquet scene, a high point, was wonderfully performed with period crockery and a convincing cadaverous make-up of Banquo’s ghost. The most outstanding performance was by the drunken, bawdy, comical porter at Macbeth’s castle gate, who drew loud applause.