Did Critics Have Their Daggers Out for Macbeth in Central Park?

Birnam Wood has come to the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, marking the start of another season of the Public Theater's summer Shakespeare fare. This production of Macbeth is directed by Moisés Kaufman and stars Liev Schreiber and Jennifer Ehle, as the title character and his bloodthirsty lady, respectively. Were New York critics enthralled or did the "Scottish play" mean toil and trouble?

Here's a sampling of what they had to say:

Rob Kendt in his Broadway.com Review: "For the Public Theater's darkly glimmering new production of the Scottish play, director Moisés Kaufman has drawn so freely, and mostly effectively, from the lexicon of horror movies that we may occasionally wonder if we've wandered into a multiplex rather than into the Central Park digs of the Delacorte…. The strength of Kaufman's production is it straightforwardness—its surehanded mix of naturalism and the supernatural. While Schreiber traces a convincingly understated arc, from a brooding and distracted striver reluctantly pushed to 'catch the nearest way' to a doddering monster with 'a mind diseased,' the cast and the production that surrounds him are admirably unembarrassed to go to extremes."

Charles Isherwood of The New York Times: "Mr. Schreiber and Ms. Ehle speak Shakespeare's verse with a natural grace and clarity, a seduction to match their looks… The problem is that in Moisés Kaufman's elegantly wrought production set in the tumultuous early 20th century, the Macbeths' murderous rampage unfolds at an oddly stately pace. Blood flows regularly, but as if dispensed from silver taps. In the end neither Mr. Schreiber nor Ms. Ehle seems fully to inhabit the darkness of their characters, despite—or maybe because of—the fastidiousness of their interpretations…. Mr. Kaufman's imagery doesn't expand our vision of the play, and some of the elaborate staging slackens the pace of a tragedy that best hypnotizes by keeping the pedal to the metal."

Frank Scheck of The New York Post: "Unfortunately, there's little to distinguish this production other than the presence of its starry leads. This is Kaufman's first attempt at staging the Bard, and it feels a little tentative. Although filled with ominous touches, including portentous sound and lighting effects, there's little dramatic urgency—no small detriment… Schreiber is a physically commanding performer, and he delivers the text with a naturalness and clarity rare among American actors. But while he's fine at conveying Macbeth's inner turmoil over his murderous actions, his performance lacks the shadings that would make it truly compelling. His co-star is equally disappointing. Although Ehle has proven herself wonderfully capable of comedy in such stage productions as Design for Living, her Lady Macbeth lacks the fierceness of a woman bent on murder."

David Rooney of Variety: "The complexities behind Macbeth's surrender to evil and to overpowering destiny are compellingly embodied in Schreiber's contained performance but less so in other aspects of Moisés Kaufman's intermittently forceful Shakespeare in the Park production. It takes more than a commanding lead to make this most brutal and brisk of tragedies resonate fully… Kaufman is a director who invariably puts a bold stylistic imprint on his work, and this foray into Shakespeare is no exception. While the first act ambles unduly without the necessary drive, the drama becomes more propulsive in the bloodier second act, its intensity spiraling as the dead stack up and often linger onstage to haunt the protagonist."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "[This Macbeth] is gripping and elegant, and flies like the wind, even in the muggiest early-summer weather. Its nerve center is Liev Schreiber, simultaneously debonaire and heartsick, adding to our growing conviction that this actor can do anything he pleases with intelligence and whatever trumps 'star quality' in our trash culture. With a large, stylish cast including Jennifer Ehle as a shockingly persuasive Lady Macbeth, Moisés Kaufman's production is poetically lucid and driven by danger: At last, a Macbeth for grown-ups."