photo: Michael Brosilow
In partnering with Milan-based marionette company Colla e Figli, the
Chicago Shakespeare Theater has married two of the most classic components of theater: the text of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" with beautifully materialized and skillfully maneuvered marionettes. The result, "Marionette Macbeth," which opened in Chicago and will continue on to New York, is a visually powerful production but not without glitches.
One of the world's leading marionette companies with a 300-something-year-old history, Colla e Figli brought 12 master puppeteers and 100 three-foot-tall wooden marionettes to the Chicago stage. It would be near impossible to not admire the precision with which the puppets move about the stage, whether they're dueling with heavy swords, stirring a bubbling cauldron, riding on horseback or flinging about the head of Macbeth. Indeed, the marionettes, which take about an hour each to dress, provide some of the finest moments in the play.
Unfortunately, the audience is left squinting to see many of the finer details in this play, which has been whittled from its usual two and a half hours to just over 90 minutes. Though the Chicago Shakespeare Theater's three-quarter thrust has been removed (making way for a proscenium-style stage), the human actors delivering lines to the wooden bodies dominate the front and center seating area. It's an odd choice, but likely a necessary one, for the actors to time their delivery to the minute movements of the marionettes.
But the presence of the human actors becomes an obstacle for the audience to overcome; the audience not only must sit further from the stage, but it must make one more mental leap in imagining the marionettes as imbued with human emotion and spirit. For those sitting in the back rows, the chance to glimpse a few marionettes up-close in the lobby during intermission elicited real excitement, while the actual production sent at least a few heads nodding into slumber.
Co-directed by Eugenio Monti Colla of Colla e Figli and Kate Buckley, who has worked with Chicago Shakespeare Theater over the theater's entire 20-year history, the marriage of movement and voice remained far from ideal throughout the production. And, surprisingly, any stiffness felt on stage came not from the three-foot blockheads the audiences were watching, but from the live actors who sat bathed in soft blue light in the front row, delivering their lines. The one strong exception was Lisa Dodson, as Lady Macbeth, whose energy and urgency, combined with the puppet performance, created a strong, singular character.
"Marionette Macbeth" runs through March 25 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Tickets are $30-$45 and are available by calling (312) 595-5600.
