Ben Brantley of the New York Times says of this production, starring John Douglas Thompson in the title role, “As Macbeth wades deeper into blood, with murder succeeding murder, you can feel his warrior’s adrenaline taking over, making him both majestic and monstrous. But then there are those gaping moments of downtime, when he wonders in horror at what he has done, how he got to this point and how on earth he’s going to survive.”

And his praise for the design, “The costumes (by Anita Yavich) are more or less in period (sort of abstract medieval), and the set design (by Julian Crouch) and lighting (by Marcus Doshi) use a prototypical black-box theater space to create a world of endless, enfolding night. When bright light pierces this land — as it does in Macbeth’s second visit to the witches or in a silence-torn, grippingly staged banquet scene — it is disorienting and blinding. In this world, at least for men like Macbeth, life is much so easier in the dark, when you can’t see what you’re doing.”

select images by Gerry Goodstein

Lighting Design

Produced by Theatre for a New Audience at the Duke Theatre, NYC, March 2011

Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Arin Arbus

Set Design by Julian Crouch
Costume Design by Anita Yavich
Composition & Sound Design by Sarah Pickett