Macbeth Play Review Essay

Setting the tone for a play early on is critical for the success of the play. The audience should have a sense of whether the play is fun and lighthearted, dark and scary, or classical and sophisticated. This is where the preshow comes in. The Nevada Conservatory Theatre’s take on Macbeth started off on a strong note thanks to a grand preshow. The play began outside with a witch inviting the audience into the theater. The preshow continued inside where the witches are ending their ritual. This all came before the actual meat of the show and worked to get the audience in the correct mindset. It is design choices such as these that really brought the play to life. Many people find Shakespeare’s works to be dull, so the designers of the play must work to make it easy to follow and
A combination of warm and cool colors helped to set up each scene. Particularly grim scenes were washed in red or a neutral light to set them apart from the rest of the scenes. It helped to show the mental state of the characters, thus revealing their true emotions and character. Special lighting, such as the front spotlight on the child with a sword and the backlights on the paper walls, were particularly beautiful as they broke away from traditional hanging lights. Many different colors were used throughout the play, but they did not overwhelm the audience. These colors worked well with the dull, plain colors of the costumes and contrasted with the black paint. Furthermore, it helped to establish the silhouettes on the paper walls. Without these special lights, the silhouettes would not have been as prominent and the audience could have overlooked the black splatters. The lights really gave the play its tone and, without it, the play would have been similar to other productions like it. This aspect of production was different and more noticeable than all of the others, thus making it the most developed in this