Witches are real. They are agents of the equally real Devil. They are powerful. They sow confusion and chaos. They are so dangerous that the King sponsors a law making witchcraft a capital offense. You listen to them at the peril of your life and immortal soul.  Such was the worldview of early 17th-century England, when Shakespeare’s Macbeth first appeared on stage. One of the most difficult suspensions of disbelief for a modern audience — unlike an audience of the time — is realizing that when Macbeth listens to the three witches, he is engaging with forces as real as they are malevolent. Hart Wood as Banquo, Matt Bannister as Macbeth, and Stephanie Dorius as Nona (Witch 3) in ‘Macbeth.’ Photo by Mikail Faalasli. In Silver Spring Stage’s production of the play, Matt Bannister’s Macbeth begins as something of a deer-in-the-headlights figure, not so much acting as acted upon, not only by the witches (Katherine Leiden, Tara Scully, and Stephanie Dorius) but by his wife (Maura Suilebhan).  The witches suggest, and Lady Macbeth insists, that her husband murder King Duncan (J.R. Hontz), as a necessary first step toward usurping the throne. In this, they are pushing him in a direction he is inclined to go, but it is doubtful that Macbeth — already a successful war leader — would go that far on his own. Unlike Richard III or Iago, he does not start out proclaiming his villainy. He has a conscience and the capacity for remorse. He needs, and gets, supernatural and human nudges to start the blood spilling. The cast delivers Shakespeare’s lines accurately, though, particularly in the first half of the performance, somewhat mechanically. The liveliest notes in the first several scenes are delivered by Hontz, not only as the admirable Duncan but also as the drunken porter, who provides the evening’s sole comic moment.  I have seen productions of the play in which the sexual passion between Macbeth and his wife is palpable and creates a convincing relationship dynamic in which the prospect of regicide becomes plausibly exciting. Here, Lady Macbeth’s kisses on greeting her Macbeth are urgent, but as I saw it, she is kissing the prospect of power more than her husband as a man. He is relatively passive and diffident in the encounter. And yet he kills, setting himself on a downward path he cannot control. The murder of Banquo (an excellent, restrained performance by Hart Wood) just before intermission juices up the energy of the production, a trend that continues into the second half. Interestingly, in a variation on Shakespeare’s script, Macbeth engages the three witches to commit the crime, nicely underlining the alliance between a corrupted king and malign forces. TOP: Katherine Leiden as Morta (Witch 1) and Maura Suilebhan as Lady Macbeth; ABOVE: Erica Irving as Lady Macduff and Chris Holbert as Macduff, in ‘Macbeth.’ Photos by Mikail Faalasli. In the production’s most visually arresting scene, Banquo haunts Macbeth, returning as a wordless ghost to the Macbeths’ dinner table and ultimately standing on it, illuminated in orange and green light that contrasts with Sam Linc‘s overall less colorful lighting. The design makes good use of lights flashing on and off behind and around Bridgit Kelly Burge’s symmetrical cutout-tree set, emphasizing the emotional and political disruption caused by a tyrannical king.  It’s seldom a good career move to freelance on the job without checking with one’s boss. Hecate (Erica Irving), the queen of witches, lets her trio of underlings know it in no uncertain terms. They should not have been intervening in Macbeth’s affairs, and it’s time to fix the problem. Now they must undo their mischief by undoing Macbeth, and they will do so by feeding him loophole-laden assurances designed to give him a false sense of security. Standing tall in a flowing red hooded robe, Irving impresses in the role, as well as in the very different role of the helpless Lady Macduff, who becomes the final victim of Macbeth’s killing spree.  Characters that had only a small presence in the early sections of the play make a larger impression as the revolt against Macbeth gains momentum. Macduff (Chris Holbert) has a fine moment as he turns his grief over the slaughter of his family into resolve to gain revenge. Malcolm (Irene Denniston), Banquo’s daughter and hence a legitimate claimant to the throne, allies herself with Macduff in the effort.  Malcom is written and is usually played as a male character. In her director’s note in the program, Madeleine Smith comments that the choice is intended to ask who is recognized as capable of leadership, who is overlooked, and what different leadership might look like when a country must rebuild. Casting women as military and political leaders in roles originally written for men can work well. With Malcolm, this production follows in the footsteps of Silver Spring Stage’s recent, and quite brilliant, Coriolanus, which cast women in the two leading roles. The final section of the play is highlighted by Lady Macbeth’s excellent mad scene (“All the perfumes of Arabia…”) and Macbeth’s despairing monologue as he sees his world collapsing (“Out, out brief candle…”), well delivered by Bannister.  Macbeth involves a good deal of swordplay, and fight director Bess Kaye did well to make it credibly violent, without unnecessarily prolonging the stage combat. Save for red garments for Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Hecate, most of the show’s costumes were in subdued grays and browns. The outstanding element of the technical production was MaeAnn Ross’s active sound design, which, in addition to thunderclaps, drum beats, and other line-specific sounds (e.g., a series of door knocks following Duncan’s murder), provided a constant, ominous undertone throughout the production, creating an uncomfortable emotional tone of a disordered moral universe. The undertone stops only in the final scene after Macbeth has been killed, Malcolm has taken the throne, and order has been restored. Even songbirds can then be heard. Smith’s program note insists, correctly, that Macbeth is not Donald Trump, though there are parallels. A few choices undermine the point, however. The program cover cites the state motto of Virginia — “Sic Semper Tyrannis” — which gained unfortunate fame as the exclamation of John Wilkes Booth as he leapt to the Ford’s Theatre stage after shooting Abraham Lincoln.  More significantly, the production adds lines (not by Shakespeare) to the porter’s monologue referring to a tyrant building a ballroom and a wall, which Hontz delivered to fine comic effect. And, in an apparent reference to the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, one of the murderers of Lady Macduff can be heard saying “f**king bitch” as he exits. In my view, these additions were unnecessary. An audience, particularly in the DMV, can be trusted to see parallels where they exist without being tapped on the shoulder in this way. Macbeth is not only the shortest, but arguably the most straightforward, of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Silver Spring Stage provides a straightforward, competent, understandable presentation of the play. Running Time: Two hours and 25 minutes, including one intermission. Macbeth plays through November 15, 2026, at Silver Spring Stage, 10145 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD. Purchase tickets ($30; $25 for students and seniors) at the door, online, or by contacting the Box Office at [email protected] or 301-593-6036. The cast and creative credits are here. ...read more read less