Reneé O'Connor in Macbeth


ACT I; scene 5

Reneé's first entrance is cool. The witches do most of the scene changes. And if you note my set pix, the area under the highest platform was the main "interior" entrance and exit for Macb and Lady M. The play first starts out in "exterior" with that entrance covered (as in the second pic) with the canvas flap. For Lady M's first entrance (taking the scene indoors) the two female witches, take hold of the canvas at the top, while chanting. Then as they finish, they drop the canvas and take it away, revealing Lady M standing in the "door way" reading Macb's letter telling of his encounter with the witches and his new place as Thane of Cawdor. She's dressed in this lovely light blue gown with a band around her head that has a veil hanging from it in the back. Quite a vision indeed!

The great thing about Ren's performance, above everyone else's, is her understanding of what she's saying and her ability to express it so that you understand it too. Everything she says and does makes sense. Her every action and gesture has a purpose and a meaning. Her use of the words and the economical actions and gestures she uses with them help you know exactly what's going on with Lady M.

After the letter, she has a monologue about having to be the one to stir her husband into doing what he must to gain his greatness, as king. Upon hearing that Duncan, the king, is coming, she invokes the spirits to give her the strength and cunning to do what must be done. At this point, Macb appears and they embrace and kiss in merriment of their great future. Then Lady M gets straight the point of the matter and instructs her husband to put on his mask of welcome and innocence, "But be the serpent under 't." And to "leave all the rest to me," there by placing the plotting and planning in her hands and the action of it in his.

This scene is very well done. From the very first moments with the letter, to her monologue announcing her deadly plan, to the interaction between Lady M and Macb... Ren commands the stage! Lady M's conviction and strength; her cunning, ambitious mind and obvious affection for her husband; all show loud and clear on Ren's face. The interplay between Lady M and Macb is wonderful. They are young, beautiful, ambitious, lustful, playful, conniving... Yet it's very clear who wears the pants in this relationship. I love the way Lady M "handles" Macb. Ren goes beyond the words and uses strong physical interaction with Macb, which shows the complexity and depth of their relationship. Very natural and believable.

ACT I; scene 7

Lady M joins Macb who is faltering on his courage and wants to back out of the affair. Lady M must chide him into keeping to what he has promised her he will do.

Lady M - Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'
Like the poor cat i' the adage?
...
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man.
...
(and my personal favorite)
I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.

She then lays out the plan: she will give Duncan's attendants wine and wassail to send them off to unconsciousness, affording she and Macbeth the opportunity to kill Duncan, and then place the blame on his attendants.

Macb - Bring forth men-children only; [he kisses her stomach - lucky guy!]
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males.

This is a great scene! Lady M comes in very agitated that her husband is not playing his part as host. Then when he announces, "We will proceed no further in this business," she quickly takes her hands out of his and backs away with a cold stare... before she lays into him.

While reading Lady M's lines, I can see another actress (including myself) making her a ruthless bitch. However, Ren gives her such strength and power in her subtle approach that she never comes off as bitchy. Her Lady M is this wonderfully three-dimensional human being! I love that!! Even when she talks about bashing her child's brains out, you understand exactly what she's saying and why. Yes, she's cruel, but you can see that she's not heartless. She's ambitious, but not inhuman. Ren doesn't need to be bitchy to show Lady M's power, intellect, and conviction. She is amazing!!!!

ACT II; scene 2

The scene in which Macb kills Duncan. At first, Lady M is alone and hearing noises, then Macb comes out of the chamber with bloody hands and guilty heart. She tries in vain to bring him back to his senses, first with tender caresses to his head and face ("These deeds must not be thought After these ways; so, it will make us mad."), then with annoyance ("You do unbend your noble strength, to think So brainsickly of things."), but for the moment he has lost his grip, completely.

Ren gets very physical again with him, but this time with much more force, as she pushes and pulls him about to get him to pull himself together and go wash his hands. There's this great moment where he's on his knees in grief and he reaches towards her for comfort, but she backs away from him in disgust. Great facial expression! Once again, it's the subtlety and honesty of her reaction that makes it the more powerful and believable.

Lady M then notices that he's brought the daggers with him. She pushes him towards them telling him to put them back with the unconscious attendants, but Macb refuses to go back into the chamber. Therefore, Lady M picks them up herself and goes in to finish setting up the murder scene.

When she returns she now has bloody hands. Hearing knocking at the front gate, she takes Macb's hands and instructs that they go wash and get into their nightgowns "lest occasion call us, And show us to be watchers. Be not lost So poorly in your thoughts." They ascend the stairs, but Macb turns in reply to more knocking and shouts, "Wake Duncan with thy knocking!" However, Lady M comes back and shuts him up by putting her bloody hand over his mouth. As she goes off again he finishes in a softer voice, "I would thou couldst!"

Her grabbing his mouth is very affective and even gets a little chuckle from the audience. Saturday night I noticed that when she grabbed his bloody hands in hers (earlier in the scene), she rubbed his hands as well, mixing the blood... It was rather creepy.

ACT II; scene 3

Lady M comes out to hear the news of Duncan's death. She stands up on the second highest platform in an off-white nightgown. She doesn't have much to say, but I kept my eye on Ren throughout the scene Saturday night and noted how she reacted to things. She shows Lady M feigning shock and grief, yet all the while eyeing keenly everything that is said and done by all... most esp. by Macb. She watches him like a hawk, fearful that he'll slip up somehow. He doesn't. In fact, when he admits to killing the attendants, in his grief stricken rage upon seeing Duncan dead, Ren gives this wonderfully subtle expression of surprise.

ACT III; scene 1

Macb and Lady M, as king and queen, greet Banquo. Lady M has but one line, but there is some interesting business going on between Macb and Lady M, as they get accustomed to their new roles. There were several moments of eyeing each other to go here or there, per ceremony and custom. Finally, he has to motion with his head for her to leave. My interpretation of all this is that 1) Lady M and Macb are showing signs of being uncomfortable in their new positions, both from inexperience and more so from guilt, and 2) she's also unhappy playing the second fiddle to Macb in public, seeing as how she's the one who ultimately made it all happen. I could be wrong. There isn't much to go on in this scene, so only Ren knows for sure what is going on in Lady M's mind at this point. Nevertheless, that's how I saw it.

ACT III; scene 2

Macb is losing his wits and Lady M does her best to hold fast.

Lady M - How now, my lord! why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
Using those thoughts which should in deed have died
With them they think on? Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done.

One of my favorite Ren moments is in this scene. Macb is going on and on about Duncan's death and Lady M beseeches him to be "bright and jovial among your guests tonight." Then Macb brings up Banquo (who he's just sent assassins to kill), which makes him even more disturbed. Finally, Lady M darts across the stage to Macb, grabs him and shouts in his face, "You must leave this." It's an awesome moment, for it's the first time we see her on the verge of breaking. The madder he gets, the closer she comes to losing it herself. This burst of hers brings him back down to a functioning state, whereby he hints of "A deed of dreadful note." However, he keeps her in the dark about it (the death of Banquo), by saying, "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed." Ren's expressions of concern are very strong and constant. Her focus is stunning to behold.

ACT III; scene 4

Macb and Lady M at a banquet with their guests. This is when Macb sees the ghost of Banquo and amazes everyone with his horrified reactions. Lady M must reassure the guests:

Lady M - Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
He will again be well: if much you note him,
You shall offend him and extend his passion:
Feed, and regard him not.

At the same time, she must tend to Macb who has completely flipped.

Lady M - Are you a man? ...
Oh proper stuff! This is a painting of your fear: ...
When all's done, You look but on a stool.

She follows him about the stage as he tries desperately to get away from the ghost, while screaming and wailing for the ghost to go away (which it does). She tries in vain to snap him out of it. "My worthy lord, your noble friends do lack you." With the ghost gone, he tries to reassure the assembly that all is well again, but the ghost returns, and he flips out all the more.

Lady M (to guests) - Think of this, good peers,
But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.

Macb is now a whimpering heap in the middle of the stage with Lady M kneeling behind him trying to restrain and comfort him, as the ghost disappears again.

Lady M - You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting, with most admired disorder.

Macb queries about the reality and affects of these visions. When a lord questions him, "What sights, my lord?" Lady M counters:

Lady M - I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;
Question enrages him. At once, good night:
[The men rise, but pause before leaving. But she urgently insists:]
Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once.

As Macb lays there in her comforting arms he marvels, "It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood: ..."

Naturally, that line brought on visions of X&G in WG?. I was also reminded by this moment of the many times ROC and LL held one another in each others arms, comforting and supporting... *sigh*

The last bit of this scene shows how weary Lady M is becoming. Not only in keeping her husband from committing political suicide, but the weight of her own guilt is plaguing her face. This is a very physical scene for Ren. Macb is literally all over the place and she is continually trying to calm him and keep the peace. However, there is no hope of it, for Macb has turned the tide and there's no going back. By the end of the scene, you see in her eyes a look of utter defeat. They must ride this wave of destruction to the end. For her, she knows all will be lost.

At this point, there's a 15-minute intermission. However, since there is but one remaining scene of Ren's, I shall proceed.

ACT V; scene 1

Finally, we have Lady M's mad scene. And in true ROC form, she saves the best for last. She enters, in nightgown, from the stage left stairs, carrying a lantern, with the observing doctor and waiting gentlewoman up stage right. She comes down to center stage miming the washing of her hands, with a tortured face. "Yet here's a spot."

Ren did an incredible job with the mad speech. She took her time and connected fully with every twist and turn of Lady M's thoughts.

Lady M continues "washing" her hands, even more intensely, and shouts, "Out damned spot! out, I say!" Then quickly looks up, "One: two: why then 'tis time to do 't." A moment later she drops to her knees and cries, "Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him." She then sings a little ditty, "The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?" Then shifts back to her hands, "What, will these hands ne'er be clean?" At which point she rises, "No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with this starting."

After the Doc and servant have an exchange, Lady M grimaces and reaches out about her, "Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." She falls to the ground again in sobs, "Oh, oh, oh!" (Ren was seriously crying throughout this scene. Very affective! She even had to wipe her nose at one point Saturday night. )

During another exchange between the two observers, Lady M suddenly rises and as if talking to Macb, "Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale. - I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out on 's grave." She goes to pick up the lantern. "To bed, to bed! there's knocking at the gate:" As she ascends the stairs, "come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's done cannot be undone. - To bed, to bed, to bed!" She disappears down the back steps.

In this last sequence, I loved how Ren handles the repetition. She did each of them while moving and quite often in a stage whisper or undertone, as if talking to herself. And because she did them to movement, it extended them a bit, so that there were appropriate pauses and connections to her agitated state of being, which was further expressed in the way she moved. Beautifully, beautifully done!

ACT V; scene 5

Ren's final appearance in the play is when Macb brings her dead body out (her hands covered in blood) and props her up on the throne (in this case, an L-shaped box). Note: Bringing her out on stage at this point is not in the script. Yet I liked the affect it had on the scene. Moreover, it gave me something to look at and admire while he babbled. Ren plays dead extremely well, I must say... all limp and motionless. Well done, indeed! It's interesting to watch Macb stroking and kissing her head, face, and neck, while ranting on and on about this and that, and she just lays there, her head leaning all the way back onto the upper portion of the box. That couldn't have been very comfortable. Esp. since she's there quite a long time. I kept expecting him to bump her during his rantings, thus sending her tumbling to the ground. HA! She'd go with it too, I bet. LOL!

My final words on Reneé: It never ceases to amaze me how subtle, yet at the same time extraordinarily powerful and believable she is in her acting. She never goes overboard in anything she does. Her choices are strong and clear, but without the need to overdo it. Just enough, yet oh so powerful!

Well, that's all I can think to tell you about the show itself. If I remember more, I'll make note of it. I know my words will never do justice to the brilliance of ROC's performance, but I hope it at least sparks your imaginations to take it from here. You all know how amazing she is. I'm sure you can envision it quite well on your own.

Cheers!

Copyright - Sarah Mears, 6/30/02; Edited: 7/1/02
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