Sierra Rep steps into the darkness with ‘Macbeth’

Fair is foul and foul is good theater as Sierra Repertory Theatre prepares to stage Shakespeare’s dark tragedy “Macbeth.”

The Bard’s tale of ambition, murder, witchcraft and madness is packed with classic characters and lines. Set in medieval Scotland, the play follows a general who receives a prophecy that he will become king. For Sierra Rep producing director Dennis Jones and the cast, the challenge was to make the larger-than-life characters come alive on stage.

“It’s important to never judge, but try to get into the humanity of him. I did not want to paint a two-dimensional picture of him,” said Los Angeles-based Charles Pasternak, who plays Macbeth in the production. “From the beginning, I wanted to know him in terms of what he turns into, which is a monster.”

Joining Pasternak as his Lady Macbeth is Emelie O’Hara, also of Los Angeles. She pushes Macbeth and helps to fuel his deadly ambition through the play, only to succumb to her guilt.

“There’s a lot of pressure because she is so iconic. My work has been trying to cut through that and find a human underneath,” O’Hara said. “You can’t play those great ideas and the preconceived notions people have. If you don’t find the human underneath, there is no way people will invest in the play.”

The Sierra Rep production opens Aug. 21 and will be set in period, with what cast members describe as a “Game of Thones”-esque look complete with big swords, dark cloaks and bloody daggers. The play also incorporates supernatural elements like witches and ghosts. Audiences can expect to see castles complete with hidden passageways on stage and hear everything from thunder strikes to hoof beats.

“(Jones) and his design team have done an incredible job with a mobile set. There are projections, fog machines. It’s very atmospheric and dark,” Pasternak said. “I think it’ll be really exciting to watch how the stage shifts physically. It’s a really excellent ensemble they’ve put together.”

The actors portraying the central couple are both new to Sierra Rep. But Pasternak comes to the production with a wealth of Shakespearean experience. He is the co-founder and artistic director of an L.A. theater specializing in the Bard’s work, called the Porters of Hellsgate Theatre Company.

O’Hara is newer to Shakespearean acting, but said she was excited about bringing a younger, more active energy to her Lady Macbeth.

“(Lady Macbeth) plays everything at 11. Since I’m younger than some who have traditionally played her, I want to give her a certain layer of impetuousness and shortsightedness.”

The piece is also one of Shakespeare’s shorter works and moves quickly while still packing in some of its most famous lines, from “Double, double, toil and trouble,” to “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” and Macbeth’s fateful soliloquy that begins, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow …” Still, for all of its beautiful language, Jones said what drives the characters is all too human.

“You can follow the plot and understand the characters’ motivations,” he said in a statement about the play. “That’s what makes Shakespeare so fabulous. He had remarkable insight into the human character. He understood what motivated them, what they cared about.”

This story was originally published August 12, 2015 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Sierra Rep steps into the darkness with ‘Macbeth’."