“MACBETH IN STRIDE”: Performances are underway for “Macbeth in Stride.” Written by Whitney White; and directed by Princeton senior Layla Williams, the musical runs through April 12 at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre. Above: Woman (Alex Conboy, third from left) debates the nature of Lady Macbeth’s role with three Witches: Sasha Villefranche (left), Amira Adarkwah (second from left), and Kareish Thony (right). (Photo by Ron Wyatt / Lewis Center for the Arts)
By Donald H. Sanborn III
Macbeth in Stride is a musical in which the story of Macbeth is retold from Lady Macbeth’s viewpoint. More precisely, it is told from the point of view of a contemporary African American female performer, identified only as Woman, portraying, and examining the role of, Lady Macbeth.
The stage on which Woman performs seems not to be a literal space, but rather a metaphysical one. Although she is dissatisfied with Lady Macbeth’s role in the original play, Woman is constrained by the way in which Shakespeare has written it — not at the insistence of a producer or director, but because the play’s Witches, who serve as a cross between a Greek chorus and a trio of godlike beings, insist that the play’s world cannot be changed. more
On April 13, the Czech migrant who has been residing at 225 Madison Avenue since November 22, 2024, will be leaving town. I’ve had almost four months to visit the Morgan Library & Museum’s exhibit commemorating Franz Kafka’s June 3, 1924 death and yet here I sit in my study with a copy of Diaries 1910-1923 open to a facsimile of the undated first page, which begins with a single sentence: “The onlookers go rigid when the train goes past.”
