BALLET MEMPHIS’ ‘MACBETH,’ THROUGH OCT. 19 IN THE COMPANY’S FLY STUDIO
With a few notable exceptions, ballets based on Shakespeare’s plays are largely confined to a couple of best-known titles: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Romeo and Juliet.” The reason may seem obvious. Dance rhymes with romance.
The lovers in “Macbeth,” however, are a pair of killers. And dances with devils come with diabolical complexities that make words and drama skills useful in character development. To borrow an acting tip from Lady Macbeth, “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”
But Ballet Memphis’ new original production of the Scottish Tragedy takes up this wordless challenge with a satisfying, dramatic effort. Dancers transform into narrative vessels. Blood and broadswords, in equal measure, make this a rare ballet where violence, not grace, imbues the movement.
Guest choreographer Joshua L. Peugh brings the proper credentials. The co-founder of Dark Circles Contemporary Dance has worked with Shakespeare’s texts before, and his interest in storytelling — more specifically “movement as language” — results in a plot streamlined to its emotional essentials.
I’m resisting the urge, but just barely, to call this a seasonally appropriate piece, like a “Dracula” or “Lizzy Borden” ballet. “Macbeth” could just as easily darken one’s spring as one’s fall. But the misty moors of Scotland do lend themselves to the Halloween aesthetic.
The story is set in motion by a trio of witches, or “weird sisters,” as the Bard calls them. Draped in spectral shawls with eerie smiles affixed to their faces, Phoebe Magna, Emilia Sandoval and Angelina Broad summon dark forces through an incantational dance. Their angular writhing and dervish-like spinning (are they channeling supernatural energy, or merely affecting it?) become the central theme of Peugh’s “Macbeth,” a story that factors into any literary debate about determinism vs. free-will.
As the titular character, dancer Cayce Cavett first appears as a noble and sanguine thane, upright and loyal to his leader, King Duncan (Harry Warshaw). But an encounter with the witches leaves him shook. Like a tarot reading gone sideways, their prophecy that he’ll soon be king would instigate a lot of stabbing. Does one reject such an ignominious fate, or lean into it?
Like an infection, the witches’ prophetic dance begins to manifest in his own body. His wife, too, is seduced by the prospect of power. The excellent Cecily Khuner has eyes as crafty as her body language; they flash with deception as she interacts with her future victim, the king. In a series of duets between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, their soft embraces gradually take on a more toxic touch. As they move forward with their plan, what remains of their conscience emerges as anxious palpitations.
How do generally well-meaning people become possessed with really bad ideas that lead down paths of violence? This ballet may offer some causes for either reflection or alarm, especially as Macbeth begins killing off rivals to ensure a third term in office his hold of the crown.
As can be expected in a play with so many soldiers and clansmen, “Macbeth” is a macho affair. Even the women serve as battlefield extras when they are not, like Anwen Brown’s delicate Lady Macduff, signifying the collateral damage of bloodthirsty ambition. Peugh’s choreography has an emotional heaviness to it: arms swoop low, leaps strain against gravity. Hints of folk dancing add to a dark and rustic ambiance.
Nothing sets a more appropriate or haunting tone for this ballet than its stunning original score by Brandon Carson, who uses traditional instruments from various cultures to create a moody, off-kilter tension. Costumer Elizabeth Bourgeois’ earth-toned tunics and tartan stoles give a sense of medieval Scottishness without resorting to Braveheart cliches.
With so many male principals and no spoken names to identify them, even someone familiar with the plot may find it difficult to keep the characters straight. For that reason, it pays to study the program notes. ✒ C.B.
Ballet Memphis’ “Macbeth” continues through Oct. 19 in the company’s studio space, 2144 Madison Avenue.
