Last Saturday night I saw the SITI Company’s double-bill of Radio Macbeth and War of the Worlds — The Radio Play, directed by Anne Bogart, at Dance Theater Workshop. My review for CultureVulture.net is posted here. It says, in part:
“Who needs one more traditional production of “Macbeth”? Or who wants to see a version with a single conceptual idea that plays itself out tediously over the course of the evening? Whenever you think you know what Bogart and company are up to, they shift things slightly. The one constant is full attention to Shakespeare’s text, performed by highly skilled actors with excellent verbal and vocal skills. Without the traditional castle scenery and warrior jousting, I found myself hearing lines from the play that had never stood out before. Plotting the murder of Banquo, for instance, [Stephen Duff] Webber plays the speech that begins “We have scorch’d the snake, not kill’d it” with an intense mixture of blood-thirst and soul-sickness. And [Ellen] Lauren as Lady M (see photo above) is riveting throughout. If ultimately the production remains a somewhat academic exercise, I wasn’t bored, and I’m glad I saw it.”
Bogart was hanging out in the lobby before the show, and we exchanged warm greetings. I’ve been seeing her work for 30 years, the entire time I’ve been in New York, since back when we were kids. I’ve interviewed her for the New York Times and the Village Voice. I’ve seen a couple of dozen shows she’s directed (probably not even half of her complete work), from her legendary student productions of South Pacific and Spring Awakening at NYU, to Paula Vogel’s Baltimore Waltz, to her several Gertrude Stein pieces, and her portraits of artists (Robert Wilson, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg). I haven’t always loved every production, but I admire and respect her as an artist.
another eye opens 