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Shakespeares oeuvre is kind of like Twitter: a magnet for hot takes.
Exciting, and sometimes frustrating.
SchmidtsMac Bethfeels like a gilded picture frame with no picture in it.
Its eye-catching, sometimes even tantalizing, but theres a big old doughnut hole in the middle.
Give me, quoth I Ill do, Ill do, and Ill do.
Unfortunately, thats pretty much all that we sense.
And we need to take the story seriously otherwise, why are we all here?
A spell isnt simply words: Its words and intention, words and deep, ferocious desire.
As Lady Macbeth, Ismenia Mendes comes closest to tapping the storys dark, frightening heart.
Theyre not living the story; theyre playing the frame.
Which means thatMac Bethisnt a tale of possession-by-play but of play as means-to-an-end a flatter, less evocative scenario.
But Schmidt has her actors playing aroundMacbeth, not actuallydoingit.
And the shame of it is, they could be more.
Its undeniably exciting to hear the words ofMacbethresonating from the bodies of seven young women.
Mac Bethis at the Lucille Lortel Theatre through June 9.
