ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 17, 1996 TAG: 9602190101
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: THEATER REVIEW
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
Mill Mountain Theatre's "Macbeth" is an extraordinarily lavish production.
The set by John Sailer is like multi-tiered scaffolding with a cauldron that doubles as a throne platform in the center. Even the orchestra pit becomes part of the open, spiral staircase effect; it's the darkness into which Macbeth's evil gofer eventually disappears.
Costumes by Mitch Baker are beautiful, in regal golds and greens. The witches' earth-toned rags shudder at their every movement, adding to what is already an eerie tableau around the smoke-spewing cauldron.
No detail has been overlooked - though some are overstated - in this production's appearance, which underscores the hot/cold contrasts of this play.
Those lovely Macbeths (let's not forget to leave them off the dinner party list) are hot for each other. But it's as if the heat of ambition has turned their powers of calculation to cold steel and shrouded their hearts in ice. So this production gives us torchlight, bowls of fire, smoke and steel. Even the shuddering tree in Act II appears to be made of a shimmering metal and evokes the cold, windy Scottish landscape.
That's the good news. And the bad news requires a disclaimer: Mill Mountain Theatre productions are reviewed on the first available night - in this case, the first preview night (Wednesday), which means that all the kinks may not have been worked out. Tickets are sold to what are introduced (by director Jere Lee Hodgin) as essentially dress rehearsal performances.
So, as Macbeth himself would have put it, ``'Twas a rough night,'' Wednesday. So much attention has been paid to how the play looks that its dramatic impact has suffered. The trouble seems to be with the leads' handling of the language and meaning of the play.
Leads Tim Gregory and Kim Martin-Cotten are lavishly gifted of voice (she evokes Piper Laurie; he, sometimes, Orson Welles one notch up), but good diction and elegant physical movement are no substitute for a clear understanding of what is actually happening between characters. Gregory seems comfortable with Macbeth (he's played him before), but these two need several more nights together to generate the intensity this relationship requires.
On the right track are Brent Harris as Ross; Jeremy Scott Johnson as Malcolm; Doug Zschiegner as Macduff (especially in his scenes with the above); Vincent Wares as Lady Macbeth's doctor; and the wonderful Christopher Marino as Seyton/Witch #2. Marino and Harris especially know how to own the language and, as recompense, the character.
That's what draws in an audience - not just good looks and beautifully choreographed sword fights. This "Macbeth" needs to bear down and break a sweat of a deeper variety - or it will leave theatergoers cold.
MACBETH: At Mill Mountain Theatre through March 10. Tickets $14-$18. Call 342-5740.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB