Short Shakespeare! Macbeth

Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier brings "Short Shakespeare! Macbeth" to Chicago theatre audiences this season. An abridged edition of the original text, "Short Shakespeare! Macbeth" is part of an initiative that engages Chicago Public School students and teachers.

Performances include talkbacks at the end of each performance, wherein young audience members are invited to ask questions of the cast's experiences. In addition to performing for the public on Saturday mornings and afternoons through mid-February, the production will tour for five weeks through the Midwest, giving a fully realized professional production of Shakespeare to students in urban, suburban, and rural schools.

Already one of Shakespeare's shorter works (typical productions of "Macbeth" run about two hours or more, not including intermissions); director Kirsten Kelly streamlines the script to its bare bones. Clocking in at a mere 75 minutes, "Short Shakespeare! Macbeth" is an entertaining, though not terribly inspired, foray into the world of Shakespeare's Scottish play.

It is a time of war and warriors in Scotland, and Macbeth (Chris Genebach) and Banquo (Michael Perez) are returning home, basking in recent victory. The duo encounter three "Weird Sisters" (Kevin Cox, Andrea San Miguel, and Tiffany Yvonne Cox), who prophesizes a future with Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor as well as Glamis, along with the crown of Scotland. However, Banquo will father the future kings of Scotland.

Initially dismissive of the witches' message, Macbeth and Banquo learn that the current Thane of Cawdor is to be executed, and that King Duncan (Jeffery Baumgartner) will endow Macbeth with the title. Soon both men ponder the possibility of the remaining predictions, and the idea of wearing the King's crown becomes most seductive to the ambitious Macbeth.

Just prior to Macbeth's return, we met the equally ambitious Lady Macbeth (Lanise Antoine Shelley), soliloquizing on this twist of fate that could mean a future as royalty for her and her beloved. If Macbeth is hungering for the throne, then Lady Macbeth is his appetite; unencumbered by morality, Lady Macbeth hatches a devious plot.

With Duncan and his son Malcolm (Steven Lee Johnson) visiting the their castle, the circumstance is ripe for Duncan's assassination and for the framing of his attendants. Though some remnant of conscience nearly pulls Macbeth from the bloody deed, Lady Macbeth convinces him that his greatness is what matters, and so the plan is carried out.

Malcolm flees to England and Macbeth is crowned. However, Banquo remains suspicious of the circumstances that led to the fulfillment of the witches' prophecy, and Macbeth worries that Banquo's presence will upset the balance of power that he has struggled for. After all, it is Banquo's sons that the witches' predicted would ascend the throne next.

Giving in further to his ambitions and increasing paranoia, Macbeth conspires to murder his friend, whose ghost will haunt Macbeth at his coronation banquet. Soon the nation is on the verge of civil war, and Malcolm, aided by Macbeth's former brother-in-arms MacDuff (Nicholas Harazin) makes a bold return to Scotland to claim its crown.

The cast of "Short Shakespeare! Macbeth" is quite good, transitioning quickly from scene to scene as smoothly as if the entire script were at their disposal. In addition to Genebach's quality performance as Macbeth, praise is to be given to strong supporting work by Perez as Banquo and Harazin as MacDuff.

The costumes and set blended beautifully with the sound and lighting design. A great deal of swordplay remained in "Short Shakespeare! Macbeth," and it was all handled beautifully by the actors as they executed fight choreography by Matt Hawkins. All in all, "Short Shakespeare! Macbeth" was a well-produced and very entertaining abridgement of this popular Shakespeare play.

That said, I found myself wondering what would have happened if the creative powers behind "Short Shakespeare" had chosen either a different play (with its very adult themes of ambition, I don't know that younger students will find much to identify with) or had taken a much bolder take on the play at hand.

It isn't that I find fault with "Short Shakespeare! Macbeth," per se. I just would have liked to have seen, for the sakes of the young students for whom this may be their first exposure to Shakespeare, that something more applicable to their own circumstances be presented.

Again, a different Shakespeare play? Or perhaps radically changing the setting of Macbeth, placing him in contemporary times, even as a young man in a school setting. Something that gives youth a chance to see Shakespeare as the analogy for our own lives that, when at its very best, is exactly what it is.

"Short Shakespeare! Macbeth" runs through February 14 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Ave in Chicago. For information or tickets, call 312-595-5600 or visit www.chicagoshakes.com.