Colapinto's Macbeth Deserves Applause

I was shocked by Susannah Mandel's article about Macbeth. I saw it on opening night and returned on Saturday night to see it again. Mandel writes one of the worst reviews I have ever read. It is as if she has a personal vendetta against Pablo Colapinto '00, the actor playing Macbeth. She spends the entire article laying into him. She writes: "Speaking in a tone of mingled peevishness and self-pity, he proceeds to recite Macbeth's lines as though he's whining at Fate for giving him such a hard time."

I'm not sure if maybe she forgot to see the play or maybe she knows little about human emotion. Whatever the case, Colapinto's Macbeth was not begging us for pity, as many actors cast as Macbeth do. His Macbeth is confused and frustrated by his fate. He gives short, confused little laughs here and there. He was not asking for pity, but rather questions his fate which he has accepted. That was the new twist in Colapinto's Macbeth. In many productions Macbeth is pathetic, and as the play progresses one almost wants his end to come. Colapinto's was more real, less staged.

Drew R. Volpe '01