The Psych Drama Company’s ‘Macbeth:’ ‘Lesser than Macbeth and Greater’

The rounded globe of the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Science came alight with billowing clouds of faint color as the audience lay back to absorb The Psych Drama Company’s abstract, transcendent adaptation of “Macbeth.” The play has no visible actors nor stage. Instead, “immersive 3-D sound” fills the planetarium while scenic visuals inspired by the play illuminate the domed ceiling. While this production deviates from traditional theater, its ingenuity does not detract from exploring the characters’ moral inquiries. Rather, the production allows the audience to truly listen to the ambivalence embedded within Shakespeare’s language. As a result, the true action of the play is not on the battlefields or around the castles, but inside Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s minds. Despite the cost of excluding the actors’ images and the subtleties of physical stage directions, this adaptation succeeds in capturing the struggles of free will in a captivating production.

The director of the play, psychologist Dr. Wendy Lippe, calls this psychological realm the “Macbethian Mindscape.” During Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s soliloquies and intimate conversations, hushed, perverse voices and anamorphic imagery permeate the scene. Whispers repeat lines of the soliloquies, highlighting the ambivalent language with contradictory tones. In a post-show talk, Lippe shared that the whispers may represent the Macbeths’ “deep desire” or “their conscience.” Furthermore, the voices of the Witches are the same as those of the whispers. The Witches’ voices are sometimes shrill, which is distracting at times — but the choice to expand the Witches’ presence is ultimately effective, because it extends their role from supernatural meddlers to psychological detectives.

As a result, the whispers certainly introduce a compelling mental phenomenon: the self-fulfilling prophecy. As predictions and possibilities present themselves, they give voice to the choices that can make them come true. For instance, before Macbeth murders Duncan, the whispers shadow his thoughts, revealing both his ambition and his guilt. Therefore, the adaptation creatively suggests that it is not the Witches who set the play in motion, but Macbeth’s psyche. Ultimately, navigating that psyche is more interesting than breaking down the Witches’ brew.

Because the Witches are no longer catalysts in this show, they become “bystanders” to Macbeth’s fall. As bystanders, they also parallel the role of the audience, which emphasizes that just as the witches should wonder about human ambivalence, so should the audience.

The production is a “skeletal” version of the original play, focusing almost exclusively on the Macbeths. For instance, scenes such as the death of Macduff’s family were cut. Since the adaptation is not inherently about the consequences of the Macbeths’ actions, but the internal turmoil that led them to take those actions, such scenes are not missed. In fact, if the play were any longer, it would risk boring its audience.

Despite missing many elements of the traditional play, the sense of urgency does not disappear. Voice-actor Mark Prokes convincingly evokes Macbeth’s indecision while revealing his panic. As the soliloquy continues, the scenery of the courtyard sways and bends as the whispers grow more frequent and powerful. Produced by the Museum of Science’s Planetarium team, the vivid imagery shifts from surreal to real, and from real to abstract. Meanwhile, the original score by Žarko Dragojević intensifies the scenes and brings continuity to the play. As a result, the combination of aural and visual effects quicken the tempo and heighten the sense of dread, making the play an engaging experience.

Those familiar with “Macbeth” know that the characters do not manage conflicting emotions — but in Lippe’s adaptation, their ambivalence, and thus their failure, come through clearly. For example, in a surprising interpretation, Macbeth promises Duncan’s murder to Lady Macbeth in a moment when many people would be at their psychologically weakest: during sex. Not only did the scene incite snickers and laughs among the audience, but it also made the play more believable. Traditionally, Macbeth easily agrees to his wife’s plot without a convincing reason. Here, he is in a vulnerable, governable position.

Lady Macbeth comes to life in the Psych Drama Company’s adaptation. Lippe is the voice actor for the character, and she draws upon the possibility of the Macbeths’ lost child to give Lady Macbeth complex motives and deepen her guilt. She chases Duncan’s crown to search for a future without a legacy. Later, the murder of Macduff’s family haunts her, recalling the death of her own child. Lippe dramatizes the psychological distance between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the Macbethian Mindscape by creating a new disconnect: In this scene, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can no longer hear each other’s internal whispers, and they can no longer cope with their crimes. The scene underscores not only the importance of managing ambivalence, but also of sharing ambivalence — which contributes to the thought-provoking play’s success.

At the end of the production, the play zooms out once more, leaving the Macbethian Mindscape to enter the aether with the Witches. Their voices emanate from the nebula moving across the Planetarium screen as they question how Malcolm will navigate his own ambivalent feelings as king. The last scene reminds that every individual has their own “Mindscape” full of desire and conscience, of bad and good.

The final performance of The Psych Drama Company’s production of “Macbeth” is scheduled for August 17 at the Museum of Science, Boston.

—Staff writer Claire S. Elliott can be reached at claire.elliott@thecrimson.com.