INNER VIEW: Something wicked
this way comes when some of Britain’s
best perform Macbeth for Halloween

Witches and dark deeds haunt this Halloween season when Actors from the London Stage, five thespians devoted to bringing authentic productions of Shakespeare to American audiences, stir up a boiling cauldron of trouble in Macbeth. The play comes to Schwab Auditorium for two performances at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, October 31 and November 1.

The shortest of Shakespeare’s four tragedies concerns the dangers of lusting for power and betraying friends. Macbeth is about a general, fresh from victory on the battlefield, who encounters a trio of witches who prophesy that he will become king of Scotland. Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility of being king, but he is troubled by doubt. Lady Macbeth, who shares none of her husband’s uncertainty, chips away at his objections and convinces him he must murder Duncan, the king, and take the throne.

By using minimal sets and costumes, the actors ask audiences to be imaginatively engaged in the performance—just as Shakespeare intended.

“A few years ago I saw one of their productions in London and was struck [by] just how clear the story had been told without the use of props or without the use of huge costume changes,” says Brigid Zengeni, who plays Lady Macbeth and is making her first tour with the company. “I was really impressed because the story was crystal clear.… I think that’s partly because there was no concept sort of imposed on it. It was purely about the language.… That impressed me because I’ve seen productions and been in productions, various Shakespeare productions, where actually I think sometimes you get concept over content. And I think that’s a big mistake a lot of directors make with classical theatre, unfortunately.”

Each of the actors, who have performed with prestigious troupes including the Royal Shakespeare Company, takes on two or three major roles and several minor ones. Portraying a number of parts and changing from one to the next in an instant is a challenge, Zengeni says, but it’s really about coming to understand the psychology of each character.

“You plot each character’s journey throughout the play, which is done in rehearsal and done in your own time,” says Zengeni, speaking by phone from a tour stop in West Lafayette, Indiana. “As soon as you’re confident in each character, then getting up very quickly and changing—actually it’s quite good fun. It doesn’t give you time to think. It means you’re working on instinct. That’s what acting is to me. It’s very much about trusting your instinct and working on instinct.”

Visual cues also help the audience to know when an actor is switching to another character.

“I actually think this particular production has probably got more props than they’ve had in previous productions,” she says. “For example, when I come on dressed as Ross, I have a walking stick. So everyone knows when I come on with a walking stick, I’m playing Ross—also, hopefully, by my acting they’ll know that I’m playing somebody else. I put a skirt on for Lady Macbeth.”

In addition to Zengeni, who has performed in Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre productions, the cast features Charlotte Allam (Malcolm and other characters), Will Ashcroft (Banquo and others), Chris Donnelly (Macbeth and others), and Dan Winter (Duncan and others).

In Actors from the London Stage productions, the performers work without a director.

“An actor doesn’t give another actor notes unless they ask for them. So you have to be very diplomatic with how you communicate what you’re saying to another actor,” Zengeni observes. “So actually what happened in the first week was quite interesting because I think we panicked slightly because we’re so used to having a director who sort of oversees everything. And then suddenly it was kind of left to us. But I think the outcome has been really fantastic. I have to say it’s been a really, really eye-opening experience and a very positive experience. And I hope we tell the story as clearly as they have done in previous productions.”

Working with four other actors without the guidance of a director requires even more collaboration than usual, Zengeni says.

“It really is just trusting the text, which is kind of easy because it’s Shakespeare, and you can’t not trust that,” she insists. “But more so, [it’s] trusting the individual choices, the character choices, that you make as an actor when you don’t have a director to say, ‘No, that doesn’t work.’ So you have to sort of trust each other, and trust takes time to build. We met each other for the first time on day one. We just had to go for it. So that was quite exciting.”

The company is based in England and prepares for its productions there. Tours are booked through the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts, where each American tour begins.

“We had a four-and-a-half-week rehearsal in London,” she says. “And then the show was performed to the associate directors of Actors from the London Stage. And they gave us a few notes, and then we packed our bags and left for Notre Dame.”

This is the thirty-second season for Actors from the London Stage. Acclaimed British stage and film actor Patrick Stewart founded the company, which was developed by Professor Homer Swander at the University of California–Santa Barbara.

Each of the two annual tours takes the performers to about ten American universities. At each institution the actors spend a week performing and participating in educational activities with students. The actors bring their knowledge of Shakespeare and the performing arts to an array of courses in literature, theatre, communications, and more. In addition to working with Penn State students, members of the company will also participate in engagement activities with high school thespians and members of the community.

“We’re not professors, we’re not academics, we’re actors,” Zengeni explains. “So where a lot of the students will be looking at the text, and they’ll be reading it, and deconstructing it, and analyzing it from an academic point of view, we come in [and] we say, ‘Put the books down, get up, and let’s see what it feels like. Let’s try acting it.’ We approach it from a very different point of view—a much more practical way.”

The company wants students to learn how Shakespeare’s texts become scripts, words become actions, and actions become meaning.

“Ultimately it’s about the performance, and I think that’s what we bring to the classes,” Zengeni says. “And I think we try to make it fun, as well, because Shakespeare is very much about the human condition. That’s why it’s timeless, and that’s why we’re still performing him today because the human condition just doesn’t change, does it?”

Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring a cast member, is offered in Schwab Auditorium one hour before each performance and is free for ticket holders.