Steadstyle Chicago
	July 2009 Theatre Review by Joe Stead
	Shotgun Shakespeare: What the Weird Sisters Saw Double Bubble, Toil and Trouble.  This year Chicago theatre-goers have seen several different takes on William Shakespeare's "Macbeth," including Chicago Shakespeare, Babes With Blades and First Folio.  Now Idle Muse Theatre Company steps up to the dramatic cauldron with their own original reworking titled "Shotgun Shakespeare: What the Weird Sisters Saw".  This is a gutsy and intimate re-telling of the classic tale appropriately scaled to the tiny Side Project Theatre by adaptors Tristan Brandon and Evan Jackson and directed by the latter. The words are all Shakespeare's, but they have been re-ordered and shuffled around like a tiny jigsaw puzzle.  The emphasis here is on the three witches, or weird sisters as they are referred to in the text.  In Brandon and Jackson's vision, the sisters take on a far more human form than the supernatural oddities we often see portrayed.  As shrewdly played by Elizabeth MacDougald, Carolyn Jania and Mara Kovacevic, the three young women unleash a terrifying brew of murder, mayhem, greed and ambition.  The bloodthirsty Dane of Cawdor (Robert Negron) and his scheming wife (Stacey Sublette) are present, as well as friend and later rival Macduff, Banquo, Duncan and Malcolm.  They all take a secondary role, however, as the 90-minute piece thrusts the sisters Morgan, Freya and Cassandra into the spotlight.  It takes some literary license with Shakespeare's bloody tale as it ponders the responsibility of the sisters' premonitions and the irresistible hand of fate.  Macbeth's ruthless ambition to the throne of Scotland and his wife's duplicitous role in the carnage that follow are downplayed, just as Hamlet became a secondary character in Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead".  The play ends where the original began as the weird sisters find themselves pulled into a destiny they cannot control.  Director Evan Jackson's minimalist production is frill-free, with the audience seated on two sides of a dirt and mulch covered stage floor, creating a heightened natural arena for Shakespeare's dense language.  The haunting music and sound design by Matthew Nischan and Jason Ellis sets the perfect tone for the chilling tale.  Anyone looking for a straight-up version of "The Scottish Play" this summer should point their cars toward Oakbrook for First Folio's more traditional version.  Those who are already well-versed with the story and who can appreciate bold choices and in-your-lap storefront style acting will find "Weird Sisters" an intriguing experience.   Idle Muse Theatre Company presents "Shotgun Shakespeare: What the Weird Sisters Saw" through August 9, 2009 at The Side Project Theatre, 1439 West Jarvis Avenue in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.  Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m.  Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students and seniors.  Call (773) 382-2472 or visit www.idlemuse.org.   About Joe Stead Joe Stead has enjoyed a lifelong passion for the theatre, which has involved acting, directing, producing, designing and reviewing for the past twenty-five years.  He served as founder, producer and Artistic Director of Curtain Up Productions in Baltimore, Maryland and Four Star Players in Tampa, Florida.  Favorite productions have included "Life With Father," "Deathtrap," "The Odd Couple," "The Miracle Worker," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" and "Godspell".  He has also performed leading roles in "Fiddler on the Roof," "Pippin," "The Phantom of the Opera," "The Front Page," and most recently as Hucklebee in "The Fantasticks" for Waukegan Community Players.  Joe holds a degree in Commercial Art from Tampa Technical Institute.  As a critic, he has reviewed everything from Broadway to community theatre and major regional theatres throughout the United States including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, and the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.  Since 1998, he has been a proud resident of Chicago, the greatest theatre city in America.  He served for two years as Theatre Editor for College News and Central Newspapers.  He created the website Steadstyle Chicago in 2000 to showcase the city's outstanding and diverse theatre scene.  Joe was proud to serve alongside a distinguished panel of theatre professionals as a judge for two seasons of Speaking Ring Theatre's "Vitality" Festival of original short plays.  His most fulfilling role, in addition to reviewer and all-around theatre fanatic, was as director of the 2007 production of Peter Shaffer's "Equus" at Actors Workshop (now Redtwist) Theatre, which was nominated for five Joseph Jefferson Award Citations and won for Best Actor (Peter Oyloe).