Tackling male emotions in an all-female 'Macbeth'

CAMBRIDGE - Actress Marya Lowry staggers across the Actors' Shakespeare Project rehearsal stage, displaying an odd mix of despair and determination.

Director Adrianne Krstansky interrupts the scene to talk to Lowry about communicating the conflicting emotions clearly. "Think of it as going to the gas station," she says. "You collapse and then refuel."

The audience at this open rehearsal in the basement of the Garage in Harvard Square laughs at the odd comparison. Here, so many aspects of "Macbeth" are being rethought. For this production, which opens Thursday at Boston University's Studio 102, all the parts are being played by women, with Lowry in the title role and Paula Plum as Lady Macbeth.

In Shakespeare's fast-paced tragedy, cold ambition rules as the Macbeths cut a bloody swath through Scotland in their attempt to take the crown. "It's incredibly violent," says Krstansky. When she first started talking to the actresses in the company about it, she asked why they'd chosen to stage the play, she recalls. "But as we started looking at it, we noticed that every murder destroys a family, and we wondered if the violence comes from the fact that the Macbeths can't have a child."

Lowry says embodying these roles is tricky. "The emotions are huge and difficult," she explains. "It's a challenge for us to give ourselves permission to go in this direction. Even in great women roles, the women never dominate the plays in the way these men do."

Bobbie Steinbach, who has several parts, including King Duncan, one of the witches, and a drunken porter, says taking on the masculine emotions is not as simple as she thought it might be. "I've never before been in a role in which I had the opportunity to wield a weapon," she says. "It empowers me, but it makes me sad, too."

Krstansky, who is best known as an actress ("Britannicus" and "Ubu Rock" at the American Repertory Theatre, "Frozen" at New Repertory Theatre) and acting teacher at Brandeis University, did a wonderful job directing Diego Arciniegas in "Thom Pain (based on nothing)" at New Rep, but she says she doesn't have that much experience as a director, especially with Shakespeare.

"The women of the Actors' Shakespeare Project wanted someone they could collaborate with," she says, "not someone who already had a vision of how the play should work. By coming at it from an actor's perspective, I think we can help each other make choices that don't try to turn the women into men."

"We all know what it means to be ambitious," she adds. "It's a human emotion. But we're also exploring parts of ourselves we don't always get to use fully."

Taking on male roles also led to some interesting decisions about costumes, Krstansky notes. "The male bird is so beautiful, and colorful. These actors don't have to disown the beauty they have to play these roles. They just have to think about it in a new way."

At 855 Commonwealth Ave., Thursday through Nov. 11. Tickets: $30-$42. 866-811-4111, actorsshakespeareproject.org.

Notes
Image Theater Company moves beyond its home in Lowell to stage an encore production of its hit "Distant Music" at Skelligs Irish Tavern, 240 Moody St., Waltham. The play, set in a bar, runs this weekend and next weekend. Tickets: $19, $20 at the door. 781-649-0679, imagetheater.com. . . . Lewis Wheeler will star in the title role of Shakespeare Now's "Hamlet," directed by his father, David. Student matinees run Oct. 31-Nov. 20; a Nov. 19 show is open to the public at the Tower Auditorium, Massachusetts College of Art. Tickets: $10. 617-734-3477, shakespearenow.org. . . . Harvard University celebrates the reopening of the former Hasty Pudding Theatre, now called the New College Theatre at Harvard, Oct. 21, with an open house and tours led by members of the Hasty Pudding club. The theater will continue to be home to the club, but will also offer student productions with contributions from professionals. David Gammons, who has earned acclaim for his work with the Actors' Shakespeare Project, will direct the inaugural undergraduate production, "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad," the 1962 absurdist drama by playwright and Harvard grad Arthur Kopit, Nov. 1-11.