Macbeth from three perspectives

I do hope, though, that more theater and literature enthusiasts, especially Shakespeare fans, get to see it for all kinds of reasons, including its relevance to our country and how the body politic has emerged in the recent years.

If its run is not extended, this is your last weekend to watch Macbeth, presented by Theater Titas at the Power Mac Center in Ayala Malls Circuit. I do hope, though, that more theater and literature enthusiasts, especially Shakespeare fans, get to see it for all kinds of reasons, including its relevance to our country and how the body politic has emerged in the recent years. Others would, however, argue that Macbeth will never be old and outdated, given how power, for its own sake, is continuously sought, fought over and eventually lost.

There are different ways of analyzing Macbeth, whether read or watched, but my recent interview with actors Anne Gauthier, who alternates with Issa Litton as Lady Macbeth, and Tarek El Tayech, who plays the title role, and the director himself, Carlos Cariño, allowed me multiple perspectives from three people who took time to study the play and Shakespeare’s intentions.

Based on initial reviews, including those given by the audience on Facebook, the play succeeds, the actors have outdone themselves beyond expectations, and Cariño has kept true to his rising reputation as a topnotch theater director.

Anne Gauthier, who is half-French and half-Filipina, first became interested in theater when she watched Beauty and the Beast on Broadway with her parents.

“I was only seven years old then,” she shares, “but I was so enamored that from there, I just kinda wanted to be around theater.” She then attended workshops conducted Ana Valdes Lim of the Marie Eugenie Theater of Assumption.

Her first play was Rama Sita at the all-boys Lourdes School. For her college education, she attended the IPAG, the famous business school in Paris where she specialized in marketing.

But theater always beckoned. She went to theater school in New York and specialized in Meisner acting. She eventually went back to Ana Valdez Lim and did Much Ado About Nothing. She also acted in independent films abroad and attended more workshops in Melbourne.

Daily Tribune (DT): What do you like about Shakespeare?

Ana Gauthier (AG): The rhythm, that language which, I think, people should still connect to. It gives you a different way of thinking. And it is so poetic.

DT: So, do you think it is relevant today?

AG: It will always be relevant. Even Macbeth, you still see that today. The struggle of wanting power. I mean it still exists today. And going to that battle, I think even more so today. Because I think what’s so beautiful today about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, if there is something beautiful, is, back in those days, men and women weren’t equal, and now there is that partnership. It’s starting to happen more and more. And I think it was especially beautiful back in those days because when you say, “My dearest partner of greatness,” how incredible is that that they were partners.

DT: What can you say about the play itself? I mean, the way it has turned out so far.

AG: This is definitely an interesting one. I think Carlos brought it to life in a beautiful way because it is an intimate space so you get to really experience it. Choosing this space, this setting, with the lights, it’s really creating that intimate space so that people would enjoy it and get that human experience. I hope that they will be able to see that everyone has that dark side and you can choose.

You can also see what power and greed can do, that we have it all inside of us, but some choose not to go down that path and some do. And that is a human struggle.

AG: Wonderful. It’s very interesting. Because I’m so small and he’s so large. So, it’s been quite fun to start off. Because at the start of the play, I have more control over him. And to use that power of Shakespeare through the words, to be able to do it through words, is so powerful. Because the physicality is just the opposite. He is so big and I am so small. Just through the words, to be able to communicate that. There’s a lot of energy and value to these words. And then it’s been fun playing around and discovering, even reversing for quite a while now, and it was not just with that but with the whole cast.

Tarek El Tayech is half-Pelstinian and half-Filipino. Although born in the Philippines, he left at age six to live in Abu Dhabi where he finished high school. For college, he enrolled in Theater Arts in Ateneo and later transferred to Trinity University of Asia where he majored in Broadcast Journalism.

Outside of theater, Tarech is on television and film as a freelance actor. He also assists in the family’s leasing business, “just enough for us to live comfortably,” he says. He also heads the Manila Wrestling Federation, and acts as well as its senior analyst, “which is to say I do the duties of the host and commentator,” he says. “We are on YouTube. It’s called Action RelaTV. It’s sports entertainment in the Philippine setting.”

He has acted in Ateneo, first under Yan Yuzon as his director. His first major role was under Ron Capinding.

For three or four years after graduation, Tarek did not act, but while he was on vacation in Abu Dhabi, he got a call from Ron Capinding asking him to act in King of the Birds. It was just timely because he had shed off 50 pounds by working out and was ready to go back to theater. He flew back to the Philippines, “and a day after I arrived, it was our first reading already.”

DT: How do you get into a role? Like this one…

Tarek El Tayech (TET): This one is tough because it’s Macbeth. Because I can’t really look at the role. First and foremost, I will try to know what the writer’s intentions were for the character. It is difficult to glean considering that this is hundreds of years ago.

When I researched this role and did all the necessary steps, at least for me, I implanted what I saw in the character and what I wanted people to see. So I just play the character as or who I think he is, in accordance to the vision of our director.

In line with that, Carlos, the director was very collaborative. He gave us a lot of freedom to explore what we wanted to put in there. So I can say that a lot of it is my understanding of my character and what I wanted my character to be. In a sense, what I wanted the audience to see. So, for me, Macbeth is this guy who’s all indicated in the lines, anyway. He’s the kind of guy who, for lack of better words, is just tempted by all these things around him that bring him to that point where he murders someone who he cares for.

DT: Do you think Macbeth is relevant today?

TET: It’s very relevant now. It’s the story of a perceived tyrant. Again, it’s all about perspective. If you’re Macbeth or Lady Macbeth, do you see him as a tyrant? Or do you see him as a benevolent leader? Is he leading the country the way it needs to be run?

People are saying that this could be related to the current administration. Or the late dictator. Or even people at the other end of the spectrum. Like Noynoy or whoever. It’s like there is always going to be ways that it is always relevant.

Carlos Cariño, the director, must be very pleased with Macbeth. But this is just one of several that he has directed through the years that the audience enjoyed. In 2017, he directed Romeo and Juliet, where he worked with a predominantly teenage ensemble, most of the actors 15 or 16 years old and whom he had been building up since they were 11 or 12.

“To do Shakespeare as their first full-length was ambitious and we pulled it off, in a very tight 2 hours and 15 minutes,” he recalls. “And Romeo and Juliet is a tougher drama. It is not as tight and as mature a written piece as Macbeth.”

CARLOS Cariño, the director of the play.

DT: Why did you choose to direct Macbeth? What did you see in the play that made you accept the directorial job?

Carlos Cariño (CC): I think Macbeth is easily Shakespeare’s tightest tragedy and, perhaps, best put-together play. It is one of humankind’s greatest achievements. Apart from the great thematics of evil and good, of the misuse of freedom and the corruption of the intellect, it has really fun theatrical elements: witches, ghosts, apparitions, warriors, murders, fights.

Macbeth was actually my idea. I found two great Lady Macbeths and articulated my vision for the production. I then pitched the idea to Theatre Titas. They bit, and here we are.

DT: What can you say about Tarek as Macbeth and Anne as Lady Macbeth? Have they so far lived up to your expectations?

Tarek has been spot-on from day one. Even when he was still reading, not yet memorized, he was “on” the character. I would sometimes forget he wasn’t yet memorized. What he does for this production —- 13 shows in eight days? That is extremely courageous.

This is the first time I am working with Anne. In fact, this is the first time Anne is performing after seven years. She is a wonderful actor. Conscientious, studied, inquiring. I hope she continues to act. If she does, I already have something in mind.

DT: How, so far, has the audience received the play? Did you see the need to do some changes based on the audience reaction? What did you expect from the audience that you got when they were watching the play?

CC: The reception has been good on the whole. Shakespeare is a risk because some people have very fixed, pre-conceived ideas on how to do it. I knew I wouldn’t please everyone. I won’t use fake accents, ever. I use a lot of movement. I have a coven of witches. I break the walls constantly.

I tweaked some things as we went along based on audience reaction, but for the most part, I stayed around the original visioning: actor-centered, natural accents, pace, movement, sound, fury.

I noticed early that all I had expected the audience to “get,” they got: intrigued by the coven of witches, impacted by the movement/choreography/fights, intense, fast, attracted to the cast and cognizant that this is a tale of freedom gone wrong.