In her aggressively physical adaptation of "Macbeth," director Kathleen Akerley transforms William Shakespeare's text the way "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" gut-renovates a house. A corps of seven actors -- the men bare-chested, the women in open-backed leotards -- essentially tear the Bard's plot from its foundation and scatter the words like so much construction dust.
The play's deliberate mangling is supposed to allow it to breathe in a new way. It's not "Macbeth," it's more like "Mabthec." Or as Akerley formally dubs it for her Catalyst Theatre production, the "shkspr prjct." On a Spartan set, with a full moon as backdrop, words and gestures are repeated rhythmically, actors writhing and quivering in manic parades. You know it's Shakespeare because a few shards of exposition and, more important, some familiar names and phrases, survive: Dunsinane. Banquo. "Unsex me here." "Screw your courage to the sticking place."
So, is it worth the toil and trouble? Well, yeah. As a reminder of all that touchy-feely theater that evolved out of storefronts in the '60s, "shkspr prjct" has a sort of charm. The production is aided immensely, too, by the full-bore commitment of the actors. They throw themselves into their labors with all the brio of kindergartners finally let loose for recess after a string of rainy days.
Akerley, a young Washington director with a theater company of her own, Longacre Lea, is enamored with the work of Jerzy Grotowski, the late Polish experimentalist and darling of drama-school movement classes. Grotowski's acting theories encouraged vigorous, stripped-down theatricality and placed strong emphasis on the training of both voice and body. The repetition of a specific action is viewed as a vital avenue for an actor's development.
These techniques are employed in Akerley's "shkspr prjct," and the result is a free-form piece that turns actors into sculptural modern dancers and boils down the play to some of its fiercer elements. For a theatergoer, it pays to bone up on the material it's based on; you'll stand a better chance of absorbing in a meaningful manner the primal aspects of "Macbeth" it surveys. The play's brutality and sensuality bleed through, as does its devotion to the supernatural. Even if "Macbeth's" touchstone witches are scarce presences here, there's no mistaking the idea of possession in this production, in the actors who twist and twitch their hour upon the stage.
What makes "shkspr prjct" a particularly valuable acting exercise -- and that's what it is, at its core -- is the exposure it gives to a non-linear brand of theater. In a city that tends to shy away from deconstructed texts and other modernist conceits, Akerley's production blows in like an invigorating gust. It's a livelier version of the play than the much more conventional, and generally lackluster, staging it received at the Shakespeare Theatre earlier this season.
There's virtually no emphasis here on individual character. In fact, several actors share the role of Macbeth, and the depictions of other key figures -- Macduff, Duncan, Lady Macbeth -- seem intentionally shadowy. The actors invest energy in developing physical traits, rather than distinct personalities. Scott Kerns's Macbeth, for instance, defines his portrayal by a repeated thrusting of his arm -- he's Macbeth as a man of the dagger.
The result is a 90-minute dance-play that unfolds seamlessly, in a series of arresting images. (It's pretty nifty what the lighting designer Jason Cowperthwaite accomplishes with a skimpy array of instruments.) The ensemble -- Kerns, Michael John Casey, Jonathon Church, Christopher Gallu, Kip Pierson, Melissa-Leigh Douglass and Adrienne Nelson -- meshes winningly. Their sharp physicality retains a freshness even when the production shifts into self-indulgent gears. Far too many melodramatic shrieks, for instance, are used to mark the evening's transitions.
"shkspr prjct" will appeal to avid students of the theater and anyone else with a curiosity about attempts to upend theater orthodoxy. A worthy goal for any company of upstarts.
shkspr prjct , adapted from "Macbeth." Directed by Kathleen Akerley. Set, Elizabeth Jenkins McFadden; costumes, Gail Stewart Beach. Approximately 90 minutes. Through June 11 at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh St. SE. Call 800-494-TIXS or visit http://www.catalysttheater.com/ .
