There’s a clue early on, in the Magic Theatre’s verse production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” as “translated” by Migdalia Cruz, to just how internal, how brooding, how complex actor Catherine Castellanos will be as the titular, would-be king: “Is this a dagger I see before me?” she wonders. She’s mumbling to herself, she knows it’s not a real dagger, it’s just her mind playing tricks.
The real horror will come later.
And thus Castellanos — as an initially ambivalent lesbian king married to Sarah Nina Hayon’s glamorous, intensely focused Lady Macbeth — paces herself, allowing momentum to propel her throughout this story of the ruthlessly ambitious, doomed pair and the devastation they leave behind when, inevitably, their time is up.
This “Macbeth” is set in 1970s New York, with scenic designer Carlos-Antonio Aceves’ detailed, grungy street set, Alina Bokovikova’s assortment of modern costumes — Lady Macbeth’s leopard-print attire and aggressive high heels are on the nose — and the cast’s meandering Noo Yawk accents.
The production is part of Play On Shakespeare!, a program in which established playwrights create new versions of scripts that, without many significant changes, slightly revise the plays for modern ears. Unless you’re a Shakespeare scholar, you’re not likely to notice the difference, except that the text is much more understandable.
Cruz originally created “Macbeth” for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, but this rewritten version is specifically for the Magic, directed by longtime Magic associate Liam Vincent. It plays out as one long, 95-minute, one-act.
It’s entrancing from the very beginning, when Macbeth and her pal Banquo meet the creepy-comical weird sisters, a sort of stoned street trio, wafting about in green fright wigs. From their seemingly auspicious prophecy to the very funny drunk-porter scene with comic genius Danny Scheie directly engaging the audience, and on through a series of bloody murders, this production draws viewers right in.
And from Macbeth’s initial bemused reaction to the witches’ prophecy to Lady Macbeth’s ecstatic glee to her “Unsex me here” plea to the cosmos (Hayon’s intensity never falters), the fate of the various characters takes on a life of its own, a sort of runaway train.
Thanks to director Vincent and an excellent cast, with Castellanos as a sort of true north star whose ambivalence is visceral, the intensity slowly builds. (“Macbeth” is full of well-known soliloquies, and Castellanos never overdramatizes them, as in her dry-eyed, philosophical “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…”)
About the cast: Just as Shakespeare’s players were men playing women, in this group (which includes Juan Amador as Macduff and Kina Kantor as his wife, Brian Rivera as King Duncan, plus a few children), some male roles are played by women — but they’re played as women, such as Nora el Samahy as likeable, fated female Banquo.
This “Macbeth” forces you to keep watching every second as things take their inevitable course — and as, in a startling and clever touch, a modern version of warning bells signals a grim future.
Magic Theatre’s “Macbeth” runs through April 5 in Fort Mason’s Landmark Building D, Third Floor, 2 Marina Blvd., San Francisco. Tickets are $35 to $75 at https://magictheatre.org/calendar/macbeth.
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