“…Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing…”
As actor Ron Menzel delivers this most famous soliloquy from Shakespeare’s classic MACBETH, he slowly turns his head 180 degrees, echoing his same gesture at the start of the play. He has just learned of his wife’s death. As Macbeth speaks we realize Lady Macbeth (Vivienne Benesch) took his unbridled greed for power with her.
As Menzel slowly turns his head, he seems to be making eye contact with all of us in the audience. His magnetic purposeful delivery of Shakespeare’s famed lamentation on mortality and existential angst is poignantly slow, in contrast to the no fat relatively fast clip roll out of the action before and after. It’s as if Menzel got the nod from Director Tracy Beasley to momentarily seize the metronome, before re-setting it to the Director’s super-efficient no-lag pacing of the production as a whole.
You too will likely appreciate the many similar imagined glimpses we get of the Director’s hand to keep the plot unfolding at a clip typical of a streamed Netflix political thriller. In a quick post-performance chat with a nearby MACBETH virgin who had never seen or read the play (and hopefully reflective of other audience members who are relative newbies to all things Shakespeare)— she clearly found the story arc totally accessible. None of these expert actors trip over their iambic pentameter word-rich lines in the slightest— nor do we. From the Macbeth leads (PlayMaker’s Artistic Director and actress Vivienne Benesch and Ron Menzel) to the precocious child actress Bennett Vick and all in between, this is an expert cast who make Jacobean parlance sound almost TikTok simple.
PlayMakers Repertory Creativity Shines Most in the Stagecraft
For this reviewer—perhaps more typical of other gray hairs in the audience who have seen more MACBETH interpretations than they can easily count— it is the inspired stagecraft that most sets this production apart. As we walk in we are greeted by the thrust stage as a metaphor of the story— covered in darkness with its corners seeming darker still. “…"Fair is foul, and foul is fair”, indeed! It only surprises by not emitting a stench. We later focus on the pond-like moat stage left, which seems more sludge than water, and scarcely the cure Lady Macbeth seeks when she cries “Out, damned spot out…” (Scenic Designer Alexis Distler; Lighting Designer Smith Chandrashaker).
Sound Designer & Composer Lindsay Jones gives this Scottish play the soundtrack of clan warfare, with aggressive drums and fifes in the mix. Bass and cello scene segués overflow with tragic affect. This writer thinks a recording of these powerful musical snippets could easily find a second home in documentaries of today’s real wars too- from Gaza to Tehran and beyond. They beg for a repeat listen.
The thoughtfulness of the stagecraft is further showcased in this insider video provided by PlayMakers where both Director Tracy Beasley and Fight Choreographer Dale Girard explain the new weaponry invented for this fight scene heavy script—
RECOMMENDED
Editor’s Note: Find more Picture This Post reviews of other US theater and opera company productions of Shakespeare’s classic MACBETH here.
CAST:
-
Ron Menzel – Actor
-
Vivienne Benesch – Actor
-
Jim Bray – Actor
-
Jadah Johnson – Actor
-
Celeste Pelletier – Actor
-
Nate John Mark – Actor
-
Allen Tedder – Actor
-
Tia James – Actor
-
Adam Moskowitz – Actor
-
Jeffrey Blair Cornell – Actor
-
Reez Bailey – Actor
-
Rafael Edgerton – Actor
-
Mengwe Wapimewah – Actor
-
Matthew Donahue – Actor
-
Dawson Boudreaux – Actor
-
Trevele Morgan – Actor
-
Delaney Jackson – Actor
-
Bennett Vick – Actor
-
Bodhi Pruitt – Actor
-
Laura Westray – Actor
-
Jayden Peszko – Actor
CREATIVE TEAM:
-
Tracy Bersley – Director
-
Alexis Distler – Creative Team
-
Olivera Gajic – Creative Team
-
Amith Chandrashaker – Creative Team
-
Lindsay Jones – Creative Team
-
Abigail Bouck – Creative Team
-
Gwendolyn Schwinke – Creative Team
-
Adam Versényi – Creative Team
WHEN:
March 4 - 22, 2026
WHERE:
PlayMakers Repertory Company
120 Country Club Rd.
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Click here to read more Picture This Post PlayMakers Repertory stories.
About the Author: Amy Munice
Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.
