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Mack attack
An intriguing play on the Scottish play
BY IRIS FANGER

New Curtains for Macbeth
Written and performed by Larry Weinstein. Directed by Spiro Veloudos. Presented by the Lyric Stage Company of Boston and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre through January 19.


Consider it a missed opportunity that Larry Weinstein, playwright, agreed to the casting of Larry Weinstein, actor, in the world premiere of the former’s intriguing one-man tease of a drama, New Curtains for Macbeth. A professor of writing at Bentley College and an acting student of Spiro Veloudos, Weinstein chose the route of the Little Red Hen and went it on his own with his play, under the direction of Veloudos.

Pity. The monologue, which takes the notion of shadowing the plot and language of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in a modern adaptation revolving around an ambitious actor and juiced up by backstage secrets, needs a more experienced actor to project the nuances layered into the script. One has only to think of the virtuoso performance of Richard McElvain in the Sœg‡n Theatre Company production of Conor McPherson’s St. Nicholas, or of John Kuntz holding the stage in any of his solo works, to wish that playwright Weinstein had insisted on equal treatment for his work, which was named a finalist in the 2001 International Playwriting Festival in London.

First impressions are deceiving. When Weinstein, playing an actor named Mack Finer, bursts onto the stage before the house lights go down to beg the audience’s attention, his nervousness and awkward stage technique could be deemed intentional, as if they were feeding off the character’s state of mind. Finer, it turns out, has come to the theater to announce the unfortunate death of one Frank Deeds, who had been set to play King Duncan in the performance of Macbeth Finer tells us was scheduled for this evening. Matter of fact, Deeds was murdered in his sleep the previous night, an eerie parallel to the fate of his character in Shakespeare’s play. Finer goes on to disclose that though he was the late actor’s understudy and more than ready to go on, the show has been cancelled.

He assures the audience not to worry. At the urging of his wife, Deirdre, a cosmetics saleswoman at Macy’s who works as his agent on the side, Finer will entertain the crowd that has gathered. After he delivers an elegy for the late Mr. Deeds, complete with baby photographs of the deceased projected on a rear screen, Finer proposes to perform an approximation of Shakespeare’s play — and indeed he does.

The edgy line that Weinstein as Finer and Veloudos as director tread here has to do with the in-your-face manner of presentation. Such an approach needs to balance between assaulting the audience and involving it in the character’s predicament. Weinstein’s Finer talks directly to the viewers seated close to him in the tiny back studio at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, even shaking hands with some of them. He mixes real life with stage life by breaking the fourth-wall convention, but he never makes it clear at what point the theatrical performance takes over from the chatty, get-acquainted opening shtick.

Finer’s monologue, embellished by frequent calls from his wife on his cell phone, allows the audience to draw its conclusions from the half-conversations overheard. Clues to the outcome are dropped early, telegraphing the macabre ending and giving us cause to wonder whether it’s actor Feinstein or character Finer whose mental state is unraveling.

The distraction of worrying about the actor’s competence competes with the overall impression of Weinstein’s script as an innovative piece of writing. The author has cleverly wrapped the metaphors of Shakespeare’s poetry into the contemporary musings of Finer, who refers to the superstitions that have grown up over centuries around Òthe Scottish playÓ and alludes to the insecure life of an actor. Finer confides to the audience that he pays his rent by lecturing on Elizabethan blank verse to an unruly classroom of inner-city middle-school students he derides as Òthugs and whores.Ó His day job contrasts with the successful stage and film career of Deeds, who had once charmed Finer’s students on a visit to the school. Finally, awash in emotions that take over his reason, Finer ends the performance in an exhausted rendition of a song and creepy ritual dance.

Veloudos, who is a skilled director, has guided Weinstein through a variety of stage business that helps to fill the 70-minute time frame and has instructed him to manipulate his voice into a panoply of harangues, harrumphs, appeals, and rantings. However, Veloudos is no less savvy a producer. So the question he might answer is why he consented to this casting when the promising playwright deserved better.

Issue Date: January 9 - 16, 2003
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