Macbeth at Battery Park

Last night we attended a performance of Macbeth put on by New York Classical Theater, one of the hidden gems of off-off Broadway. Led by the enthusiastic Stephen Burdman, the company brings plays to the widest possible audience via free environmental theater, using the grass, trees, monuments, and other spaces of Central and Battery Parks as backdrops. As the play moves from scene to scene, so does the audience, running after the performers.

As the sun set over the Hudson, Macbeth heeded the prophesy of the three witches -- and left a trail of blood from Castle Clinton to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Macduff's anguished speech upon hearing of the deaths of his family took place within the monuments to New York's war dead; as he lamented the coming of tyranny to Scotland, darkness fell on the harbor and the lights on the Statue of Liberty came on. As we listened to Lady Macbeth's "out damn spot" monologue, we occasionally cut our eyes to Olafur Eliasson's waterfall in the distance. People stopped jogging and fishing to watch, as transfixed as the audience crouching silently beneath the actors, ready to spring up for the next move.

Photo: thanks