Preview
MACBETH
Theatre Calgary
Starring Jim Mezon, Caroline Cave and Blair Williams
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Christopher Newton
Runs February 1 to 26
Max Bell Theatre (Epcor Centre)
It’s easy to follow the rising stars of cinema. Their faces are splashed across magazine covers containing headlines about what they have overcome to get where they are. By comparison, theatre’s celebrities are virtually anonymous. Actor Caroline Cave, who co-stars in Theatre Calgary’s new production of Macbeth, might not be a familiar name just yet, but she has all the style and experience you could want in a rising star, and someday she will be a household name… at least in Canada.
Born and raised in Vancouver, Cave came from a strong background of music and dance, attending the University of Victoria, followed by a brief stint at the University of Calgary en route to theatre studies at the University of Alberta. Following graduation, she was quickly cast in productions at Alberta Theatre Projects and Theatre Calgary, as well as a touring show for Quest Theatre.
Cave then proceeded, on what seems to be a Canadian theatre rite of passage, out east, although there was nothing typical about where she wound up – the celebrated Shaw Festival. She found herself working there for the final two years of Christopher Newton’s tenure as artistic director as well as the first year that current director Jackie Maxwell occupied the position.
One of the benefits of such an experience is building a rapport with a group of people who work together on several different projects.
"It’s a big ensemble but there’s a sense of, just that, ensemble – a trust – and I think that makes the work better," says Cave.
That calibre of trust and performance will, no doubt, be witnessed in this production of Shakespeare’s bloody tragedy, directed by Newton and featuring Cave and other Shaw alumni in major roles. Longtime festival star Jim Mezon plays the title character, with Cave as Lady Macbeth and Blair Williams in the part of Banquo. Their talents, balanced by several Calgary cast members with a variety of experience, provide an undeniable energy.
"The level of commitment on this show is dreamy," says Cave. "There is an amazing chemistry in this room with this particular show that, I have to say, is totally inspiring."
Cave, who is often cast in younger roles due to her petite build, is enjoying the opportunity to play Shakespeare’s very womanly Lady Macbeth. "It’s incredible to inhabit a woman – a living, breathing, sexual being with experience and with darkness and with edge," she says. "She’s just indomitable, until the end. It’s fun."
And she says there have been a few surprises along the way to discovering Lady M. – specifically, and perhaps simply, a woman’s love for her husband. "The monster in her is what’s most apparent to us when we’re children and we first encounter the text in Grade 10 or whatever," she says. "But now I see where Shakespeare has left room for her love and passion, and her hunger for her own life and that of her husband’s to live to the fullest that this day affords them, that this moment presents to them."
One of the most famous scenes in theatre history is Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene, which is often considered to be the moment where the queen reveals that she is crazy. Cave brings some new insight to that high-school reading.
"Unless she’s living in a state of pure will, she becomes totally fractured and in the sleepwalking scene, we see someone who has so sealed herself off from her femininity, her softness, from compassion and remorse, that it has to go somewhere. It’s not a mad scene, the sleepwalking scene, but rather a type of fissure where these things explode out of her subconscious – where these demons leak out. You can see that she has nowhere to go when she doesn’t have (Macbeth). He makes her whole."
Compared to other female characters in Shakespeare’s tragedies, says Cave, there is no romanticism or victimization connected to Lady Macbeth’s fall. "The world is not acted upon her, she acts upon the world. And she tries to arrange and manipulate those things in her external world, whereas, I think, a lot of Shakespearean women are impacted by the external."
In terms of manipulating her own career, Cave hopes to be a part of some more film projects, citing Atom Egoyan and Mike Figgis as two filmmakers that she would love to work with. Theatre will remain important, however, and will include more work on movement and dance technique. Beyond that, she’d like to delve into performance creation.
"At school you’re always self-generating your own work, and it’s easy to get away from that when you start working," she says. "The next challenge and the thing that terrifies me as an artist is to create my own work." |
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