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A CurtainUp Los Angeles Review
Dunsinane
By Evan Henerson
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There are patterns between us, and between that filigree, you are putting your fist — Gruach (the former Lady Macbeth) to Siward"
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Darrell DâSilva and Siobhan Redmond
(Photo credit: KPO Photo.
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And indeed, David Greig's Dunsinane has its many pleasures. The much-traveled production that parks at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts for a week-long engagement is splendidly acted and positively crackles with indignation — and occasional strategic satire — over human folly. Greig and director Roxana Silbert will not win any subtlety competitions. The thematic allusions to experiences in post-Sept. 11 campaigns are not merely laid on with a trowel, they are positively fortified with an extra layer of mortar. That said, Dunsinane moves briskly and goes for the brain as much as the gut. And it sure is a kick to see Lady M alive, well, and scheming again, particularly in the hands of Siobhan Redmond.
In Greig's scenario, the presumed-dead Queen is called the Tyrant's Wife or by her Christian appellation, Gruach, and whatever her name, the lady is both the legitimate Queen of Scotland and a political pawn. With her husband's head on a pike and Duncan's heir Malcolm (played by Ewan Donald) newly installed on the Scottish throne, the discovery that Gruach is both very much alive and resisting the new regime becomes highly problematic to Malcolm and his followers.
The action picks up just before the siege of Dunsinane. A Boy Soldier (Tom Gill) recounts how he and his company members have been recruited by the English forces to conquer Scotland, possibly at the expense of several of their lives. Among their ranks is a Captain Egham (Alex Mann) who, after being shot with an arrow, becomes a lot more cagey about how he will work within the boundaries of English-Scottish diplomacy.
With Malcolm focused on feathering his own nest and maintaining power at all costs, and with Macduff (Keith Fleming) relegated to little more than an out-of-work warlord, the political maneuverings fall largely to the British officer Siward (Darrell D'Silva), who views himself neither as kingmaker nor an avenger. Siward wants peace in a land that is not his home. That's no easy prospect in a nation under an uneasy rule by a monarchy that thinks it knows what is best for the people it has just conquered (sound familiar?).
Complicating matters even further is Siward's growing attraction to Gruach (which, considering Redmond's power, bright red hair and bewitching airs is fully understandable). Before Macbeth came into her life, Gruach may have given birth to a legitimate heir who— if found— will need to be destroyed. Shortly after being offered up as a wife to Malcolm, Gruach engineers a daring escape from captivity and goes into hiding. Now she's ancient Scotland's equivalent to the Ace of Spades, and we have barely passed intermission.
The effects of this seemingly non-ending campaign are reflected through the prisms of the Boy Solider (who doesn't stay naive for long), the battle- toughened but idealistic Siward and a group of soldiers who, when not hunting for Gruach and massacring, are trying to stave off boredom by making a play for some of the local ladies. Company members Toyin Omari-Kinch, Arthur McBain, George Brockbanks and Matt McClure locate both the drama and the black absurdity of these scenes which serve as nice interludes for the Siward-Malcolm-Gruach dealings.
Garbed though they all are in period regalia, company members low and high born all speak in modern language (including expletives). Robert Innes Hopkins sets the action on a versatile bare set with a single doorway and stone stairs leading to a high cross. An onstage musical trio directed by Rosalind Acton underscores the action with an angry rock vibe, especially when Andy Taylor's guitar kicks in, although the haunting Gaelic songs of Gruach's attendant (Mairi Morrison), evoke a very different tone.
Siward is the conscience of Dunsinane and D'Silva's beard seems to get whiter and his stoop a bit more pronounced with every setback and every “necessary” decision he must make. The actor spars engagingly with Donald's mincing Malcolm, and his scenes with Redmond are so nicely layered and fraught with such complexities that the plot keeps them apart for much of the play's second act. Truthfully — and with apologies to Mr. Shakespeare — Siward and the former Lady M. probably belong together. That this is not meant to be is but another casualty. War is hell. Just ask David Greig and the men, women and ghosts of Dunsinane.
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Dunsinane by David Grieg Directed by Roxana Silbert Cast: George Brockbanks, Helen Darbyshire, Darrell D'Silva, Ewan Donald, Keith Fleming, Tom Gill, Toyin Omari-Kinch, Arthur McBain, Matt McClure, Alex Mann, Mairi Morrison, Siobhan Redmond Designer: Robert Innes Hopkins Associate Director: Luke Kernaghan Lighting Design: Chahine Yavroyan Composer and Sound Design: Nick Powell Movement Director: Anna Morrissey Associate Movement Director: Polly Bennett Fight Director: Terry King Voice Coach: Stephen Kemble Archery Consultant: Ruth Cooper-Brown of RC-Annie Ltd Plays through April 5, 2014 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90210, www.thewallis.org Running time: Two hours and thirty minutes, including one intermission Reviewed by Evan Henerson |
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