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Chatham Life & Style

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Chatham Life & Style is a digital magazine based in central North Carolina. Since 2018, we have sought to amplify queer, neurodivergent, BIPOC, and women writers as they speak to and about our community through music & theatre reviews and events coverage. If you are interested in writing with us, please reach out.

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THEATRE REVIEW: Sweet Tea Gets Real with "Macbeth"

January 23, 2020|Dustin K. Britt, theatre

★★★★ by Dustin K. Britt, managing editor

Macbeth

Sweet Tea Shakespeare

January 2 - 19, 2020:

Vizcaya Villa & Methodist University. Fayetteville, NC

January 23 - 26, 2020:

William Peace University. Raleigh, NC

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Learn more and purchase tickets HERE.


A wedding reception hall should set too bright a tone for one of English literature’s darkest tales. But Sweet Tea Shakespeare has once again made much from little. Draped in black with a handful of lights and a few forest-painted flats, Vizcaya Villa, one of the three venues for this production, transforms easily into the Scottish woods. 

A simple set highlights detailed costuming, Dena Vassey & Sana Moulder’s elegant but never ostentatious pieces supporting a largely proficient cast as they move swiftly from character to character like spirits possessing a variety of monarchs, peasants, and otherworldly beings. 

Director KP Powell allows the cast the freedom to act, without showy staging or complicated transitions. Scenes flow from one to another with ease, but at a stimulating pace. Music director Aaron Alderman and his guitar inject their own brand of vigor, leading the all-singing cast in ditties both tragical and comical. Some past Sweet Tea productions were burdened by too many songs, but the small sprinkling of tunes here works wonders, especially in concert with a myriad of actor-generated sound effects.

Powell has found more levity in Macbeth than most directors can or will, and the cast leans into all the irony they can find. A sympathetic Wade Newhouse conveys Macbeth’s downward trek into madness almost imperceptibly, giving us time to see the man prior to his destruction and allowing us to appreciate the tragedy of his end. Having played the role several seasons ago with Bare Theatre, Newhouse knows the Scot well. But leaving that production’s amphitheatre staging in favor of this extremely intimate room gives him a welcome, and well-used, opportunity for nuance.

Lady Macbeth is usually played as a conniving, Iago-like figure, but Cheleen Sugar-Ducksworth is both vulnerable and relatable. Here is a couple unified in trying to dodge the snowball they’ve set in motion through a series of impulsive schemes, not a power-hungry woman gaslighting her husband. I’ve never seen Lady Macbeth weep with actual despair for her husband until this production, and cannot imagine seeing it any other way. 

The company is peppered with local Shakespearean regulars: Karen Morgan Williams does her finest work to date, swinging from the pickled porter to the regal Duncan with finesse. In a tour de force performance, Laura J. Parker’s Macduff proves that she is not only a strong clown, but a fierce and sincere dramatic actor worthy of leading roles. I would pay real money to see her Imogen or her Henry V. Rebecca Ashley Jones employs body and voice to differentiate a slew of characters (her Lady Macduff is particularly exceptional) while Aaron Alderman’s Doctor is as perfectly anxious as his Banquo’s Ghost is petrifying. Jacqueline Nunweiler and Bobby Callaway utilize their vocal prowess to jump between multiple roles.

Powell’s biggest gamble is played so subtly that it can barely be seen by the naked eye: calling the concept of magic into question. Is this all a prophecy? Or is Macbeth simply a man wracked with such confusion and guilt that he leaves reality altogether? If Fate is off the table, we must hold characters accountable for their actions from moment-to-moment. Inevitably is no longer an excuse and the stakes are higher than ever.


Dustin K. Britt (he/him), managing editor and arts writer, holds a Master of Arts in Education degree from East Carolina University and has worked as a theatre maker in the triangle for more than twenty years as a director, actor, stage manager, playwright, producer, and teacher. He specializes in student, community, and professional theatre, dance, cinema, music, and comedy as well as arts accessibility and queer politics. His writing has also appeared in Indy Week, Carolina Parent, Pedal Fuzz, and Triangle Arts & Entertainment. You can find Dustin on Facebook. 

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