PORT ANGELES — Instead of a light, flowery spring show, Robert Stephens went for a tragic love story, a murder mystery, a story of vicious ambition.
Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” in all its blood, gore and witchcraft, opens tonight at the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, and its 17-year-old director sees it as especially relevant in the lives of his classmates.
“I set out to prove that a student could organize and create an accurate representation of the bard’s work,” said Robert, the senior who is leading the Port Angeles High School Thespian Society production.
‘Resonate’
“I went to something that should resonate with a high school audience: ambition. That word is the core of ‘Macbeth,’ and when many students are arriving at a time in their lives where they are looking to the future, when is there a better time to ask, ‘If you knew you’d be successful, but only by doing something bad, would you do it?’
“The average de-sensitized teenager wouldn’t bother coming to some hoity-toity production of boring old Shakespeare,” Robert said.
But, he added, give them a play full of gore, ghosts and decapitations, and that’s another thing.
Curtain time for “Macbeth” is 7 p.m. today and Saturday as well as next Saturday, May 18; matinees are set for 2 p.m. this Sunday and finally May 19.
Tickets are $8 or $6 for students at the door of the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave.
More than 30
Robert’s cast and crew number more than 30 teenagers, along with a cadre of parents, including his father, veteran theater artist Richard Stephens.
The two wanted “something that would be large and epic and barbarous,” said Richard, who is “Macbeth’s” production designer.
He sought to build Scotland on the stage, a grand backdrop befitting the tale of a couple who stop at nothing to get to the throne.
“Saxon costumes, giant castle sets, stone monoliths and fog machines aside, the show still comes down to the telling of this primal story,” the elder Stephens said, adding that it all turns on the question: “How far would you go to achieve your dreams?”
Macbeth, played by Aaron Dudley, goes very far.
He’s urged on by Lady Macbeth, portrayed by Virginia Caynak. Both actors are 17-year-old graduating seniors at Port Angeles High.
“For the past three months, some of the bravest young men and women I know have been putting everything into a single unit,” Robert said.
He added that experts, such as his father, have helped build a theatrical experience he believes audience and actors won’t soon forget.
“This is a tragedy that will make you laugh and cry,” Robert said, “and maybe reflect on life.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
