Palace intrigue, suspicion, manipulation, greed, fear, savagery, disaster, loyalty and betrayal come together in “The Untime,” a new production by the Marin Shakespeare Company in its beautiful and extremely comfortable theater on Fourth Street in San Rafael. The one-act drama with five actors runs through August 25.
The skeleton of Macbeth, Shakespeare’s second bloodiest tragedy, lives on in this new play from directors Jon Tracy and Nick Musleh, brought to the present day and set in a fictional war-torn country called Caledonia. A gruff general known as The One (Michael Torres) is third in line to the throne, behind an old comrade named Caldor, whom we never meet, but who has gone rogue and is making forceful statements across all media, inciting the surviving Caledonians to revolt. Steve Price plays the insecure and jaded king, plagued by self-doubt but still in full possession of his considerable power. Leontyne Mbele-Mbong is astonishing in her role as The One’s long-suffering wife, known as The Spouse. Co-writer Musleh stars as “The Artist,” a media consultant who attempts to create video clips to increase the popularity of “The One” and “The Spouse,” for his personal gain and their constant annoyance.
The setup is deceptively simple. The story soon moves deep into Game of Thrones territory. In Shakespeare’s original, the titular protagonist is a Scottish general – a war hero who has heard a prophecy that he is destined to become King of Scotland. His wife, Lady Macbeth, firmly believes the prophecy and urges her husband to go on a killing spree to make it come true. And he does so, killing enemy and friend alike in an orgy of bloodshed. The consequences are neither pleasant for Scotland nor for the conspiratorial couple.
All of the action in The Untime takes place in a sparse, upscale kitchen in the would-be conspirators’ home (beautifully realized by set designer Randy Wong Westbrooke), their favorite part of the house because it’s windowless and relatively safe from the occasional bombing (great sound design by Ben Euphrat). Here, the characters bicker and seduce each other – not sexually, but psychologically – with confused, muddled, and often incomplete wordplay reminiscent of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Torres’ One, the man who wants to be king, is tall, imposing and irascible. He advises his wife to be patient, but displays a contradictory impatience himself. He seems to have no guilt about having destroyed his own hometown in his quest for personal advancement. His wife, who has long been obsessed with the idea of winning the throne, displays cool tolerance until she reaches boiling point. Mbele-Mbong’s outbursts of emotion are breathtaking. She is a performer with impressive control of character and expression.
Musleh is similarly gifted and very confident in a less dynamic role as a media pundit trying to win the favor of The One and The Spouse with short, indulgent video clips. Allusions to election season commercials are obvious and of course intentional.
Veteran Marin theater actor Steve Price has always had an exceptional talent for portraying neurotics. His King is a real hoot – a spoiled, pampered, self-centered king, talkative to the point of irritation, manipulative as hell, but also weak, insecure and condescending. It’s a convincing portrayal of an astonishingly complex personality – at once funny and horrifying. Calla Hollinsworth has a nice cameo as the teenage daughter and heir to the throne of the king, who reappears in the show’s epilogue.
The circumstances of The Untime are disturbingly familiar – the ongoing war in Ukraine, the protracted conflict in Bosnia, recurring wars in the Middle East or in Europe during World War II. The pursuit of power, the desire to dominate other people, the theft of resources, the perpetual lure of obscene wealth, the justification of criminal activity with high-flown, flowery prose – these are long-standing human traditions that may never be eradicated.
The Untime goes deep when it comes to examining our underlying pathology. It is a superbly performed production, but still a work in progress. Many of the scenes and speeches could be cut for brevity, which would make for a more powerful story.
There is a startling comment in the director’s notes on the theatre’s programme, comparing the play’s premise to “a sacred period of time when potential can blossom into reality and hope can be transformed into tangible change.” How an in-depth examination of human cruelty that depicts two gruesome murders – and alludes to many others – achieves this will remain a mystery.
The Untime is a wonderful performance of a very complex script, lightened by brief comedic interludes and full of shock effects. For those new to theatre, it might be a tough slog. For those with more experience, it should be gripping and provocative.
Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He can be reached at [email protected]
When you go
What: “The Untimely”
Where: Marin Shakespeare Company, 514 Fourth St., San Rafael
When: Until August 25th; Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 7:30 p.m.; Sundays 1:00 p.m.; no performance on August 8th
Permit: 15 to 40 US dollars
Information: marinshakespeare.org
Rating (out of five stars): ★★★★
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