To see, or not to see? I stopped asking the question.

I live about two blocks away from the Folger Shakespeare Library. I walk past it to and from work everyday. There has been a banner above the theatre entrance announcing the run of Macbeth. For whatever reason, Macbeth has been my favorite of Shakespeare’s tragedies and I thought it would be cool to see it. A review appeared in Roll Call, a hill rag that we get at work, raving the awesomeness of this production. Teller, the magician from the famous Penn and Teller duo was a co-conceiver and designer and the magic designer for this production. The run was completely sold out from the onset and it was extended an extra week even before it began back in February. If you didn’t have tickets from the get go, the only way to get in was standing room. So pretty much, this was the play to be seeing.

I told myself so many times that I would find a friend to see it and wait in line for tickets. I’d done it before on a much larger scale (see “Standing in line because we’re awesome” or “Root, root, root for the home team”) and it’s Macbeth! And Teller! And it’s two blocks from my house! But I never went. But I always wanted to.

The last week of the run finally came. I decided I was going to go. And here’s how it needed to work out. Usually the performance was at 7:00 or 7:30 and the box office opened an hour before to purchase the standing room tickets. People lined up at least a half hour prior to that. There isn’t a show on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday were booked for receptions and Wednesday soon went that way as well. Friday I was planning on heading to Quantico to visit Sam and the godson (more on that later) which left only Sunday. I got back into town around 1:30 and decided I was going. That’s it, I’m doing it. So I did.

I left my house right before 5:00 to and sat on the marble staircase – number 4 in line. I chatted with the others for a few minutes, but it was mostly just awkward silence. I wanted to listen to my music, but I thought that would be rude in case someone actually did want to talk. The box office opened, I got my ticket, and I went home. I would be in standing room so I wasn’t going to stand around needlessly for an hour when I could go home and grab a quick dinner and sit for a moment.

The theatre was pretty awesome. It’s all old looking with huge wood pillars and plush red seats. It’s a small, very quaint theatre and the view was pretty good.

I don’t think the reviews did it justice. Don't get me wrong, the reviews for it were awesome, but it was even better than that. Macbeth was pretty much Ah-MAZING!!! It was non-stop action from the start. The set was awesome, the choreography so realistic, the magical elements extraordinary and the acting exquisite. It was so dark, and truly realistic. You couldn’t help but cringe or look away when someone was being stabbed.

Since the theatre is pretty small, the actors utilize every bit of it, including the aisle ways. I don’t remember the character, but he was like a drunken idiot who passed on some info to Macbeth’s people. Anywho, he totally interacted with the crowd. Asked us some knock, knock jokes. I know you’re asking how that fits into Macbeth, but believe me, it works. It continued from there, and let’s just say it ended with one of the ladies in the audience rubbing his bum. Now aren’t you wishing you were there?!!

I really can’t put into words how exciting and awesome this production was. I’m just so glad I finally made my way over to see it. Here’s a link to a review for a brief interview with Teller: http://www.folger.edu/pr_preview.cfm?prid=212&is_archived=0