PlayMakers Rep's Macbeth
Delivers a Thrilling Night Full
of Sound, Fury, and Fate

In this striking new PlayMakers Repertory Company production of Macbeth, the audience is immediately catapulted onto a battlefield that represents not only the real world of political ambition and violence, but a spiritual battlefield claimed by dark forces. In Macbeth, the three Witches -- or, perhaps, something closer to the Norse fates -- do not merely arrive to set events in motion and then disappear. They pervade the entire evening. Omnipresent, watchful, and eerily in control, they seem less like outside agents of chaos than the atmosphere of the play itself, as if Macbeth and everyone around him are moving inside a destiny already woven.

That choice gives this Macbeth a potent, almost ritualistic quality. The Witches are not ornamental weirdness, dropped into the action for effect; they are the production's pulse. Their presence shadows every decision, every murder, every shift in power. Doom in this production is not something approaching from offstage. It is already in the room.

At the center are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and PlayMakers wisely leans into the charged sensuality between them in the early scenes. This is much more than a cold alliance of ambition, here there is real erotic energy. Lady Macbeth is not only forceful and persuasive, but sensual, magnetic, and deeply attuned to her husband's desires and vulnerabilities. The early scenes between her and Macbeth are sexy in a way that makes their intimacy feel dangerous. Desire, ambition, and power are tangled together from the start.

PlayMakers' March 4-22 production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth stars Vivienne Benesch as Lady Macbeth (photo by HuthPhoto)

That choice especially enriches Lady Macbeth, embodied here by Vivienne Benesch. There is something especially notable about seeing Benesch, PlayMakers' producing artistic director, step into a lead role for the first time in 10 years. She does so with commanding assurance, making Lady Macbeth far more than a familiar symbol of ruthless ambition. Benesch gives her heat, intelligence, and appetite, and then lets us watch as that force turns inward under the pressure of guilt. Her performance carries both authority and risk, and it becomes one of the anchors of the evening.

Opposite her, Ron Menzel gives a deeply engaging performance as Macbeth. One of the pleasures of his work is the way he breathes fresh air into some of Shakespeare's most familiar lines. Rather than presenting them as inherited monuments, Menzel makes them feel newly minted, as though Macbeth is discovering each thought in the moment it is spoken. That quality serves the production's rapid pace beautifully. Menzel's performance never feels stuck in reverence to the text; it feels alive inside it.

Among the supporting performances, Jim Bray brings a distinct and chilling voice to a gender-bending interpretation of Witch 1. It is a memorable turn, unsettling without becoming overstated, and very much in tune with the production's sense of supernatural omnipresence. Nate John Mark offers a solid and effective contrast to Macbeth as Banquo, grounding the world of the play with a steadier moral presence and helping sharpen Macbeth's increasingly isolated descent.

Macbeth stars Ron Menzel as Macbeth and Vivienne Benesch as Lady Macbeth (photo by HuthPhoto)

Matthew Donahue provides a much-needed moment of levity as the drunken Porter, making the scene land not as a throwaway comic interruption but as a genuinely welcomed release valve in an otherwise tightening atmosphere of dread.

One of the most haunting choices in the production comes in the casting of Macduff's children. Seven-year-old Bodhi Pruitt and six-year-old Bennett Vick are genuinely impressive. Their youth makes the scene of their murder especially horrifying, giving Macbeth's crimes a terrible immediacy. In a play already crowded with bloodshed, this moment lands with special force, not because the production pushes it too hard, but because the innocence onstage is so unmistakably real.

Much of the production's power comes from the creative team's cohesive vision. Director Tracy Bersley, who is no stranger to Shakespearean work, shapes the evening with confidence and precision. As the current Head of Movement for the Professional Actor Training Program in UNC-Chapel Hill's Department of Dramatic Art, she brings a strong visual and physical intelligence to the staging. Her vision here is both beautiful and thrilling, creating a world that feels mythic, sensual, and increasingly unstable.

Macbeth stars (from left) Jadah Johnson as Witch 2, Jim Bray as Witch 1, and Celeste Pelletier as Witch 3 (photo by HuthPhoto)

Scenic designer Alexis Distler's set is unsettling and clever, serving the production's ominous mood without ever feeling static. Particularly striking is the use of the stream in the second act, a choice that deepens the sense of unease and gives the stage picture a fluid, haunted quality. Nature itself has become complicit in the violence.

Lighting designer Amith Chandrashaker complements that vision superbly. Fabulous chandeliers lend an eerie grandeur to the castle, while mysterious blue lighting, punctuated by bright white lightning-strike bursts, keeps the tension alive in nearly every scene. The lighting does more than illuminate; it sharpens the production's psychological weather.

Sound designer and composer, Lindsay Jones completes the picture with a mystical soundscape that never overpowers the actors but instead colors each scene and heightens emotion. The sound design works like a spell cast over the production, underscoring the ever-present sense that fate, magic, and human ambition are all moving together toward catastrophe.

William Shakespeare's Macbeth at PlayMakers Rep stars Reez Bailey (left) as Malcolm and Allen Tedder as Macduff (photo by HuthPhoto)

What lingers most in this Macbeth is the interplay between sensuality and fate. The human heat between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth exists inside a larger world of cold inevitability. What begins in passion ends in isolation. What begins in mutual hunger ends in spiritual emptiness. Tracy Bersley's production seems especially interested in that arc -- how desire can make people feel powerful even as they are being drawn toward destruction

This PlayMakers Repertory Company March 4-22 presentation of Macbeth is dark, seductive, and deeply haunted -- a production that ends with the unnerving suggestion that the Witches are never truly gone and the cycle continues.

Macbeth at PlayMakers Rep stars Delaney Jackson (left) and Bennett Vick as Lady Macduff and her child (photo by HuthPhoto)

William Shakespeare's MACBETH (In Person at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 11-15 and 18-22), directed by Tracy Bersley and starring Ron Menzel as Macbeth, Vivienne Benesch as Lady Macbeth, Allen Tedder as Macduff, Reez Bailey as Malcolm, Nate John Mark as Banquo, Jim Bray as Witch 1, , Jadah Johnson as Witch 2, Celeste Pelletier as Witch 3, Tia James as Ross, Adam Moskowitz as Lennox, Jeffrey Blair Cornell as King Duncan/Siward, Rafael Edgerton as Donaldbain/Young Siward, Mengwe Wapimewah as Gentlewoman/Fleance, Matthew Donahue as Sergeant/Porter/Murderer 1, Dawson Boudreaux as Seyton/Murderer 3, Trevele Morgan as Doctor/Murderer 2/Soldier, Delaney Jackson as Lady Macduff, Bennett Vick as Macduff Child, Bodhi Pruitt as Ensemble/Macduff Child, Laura Westray as Ensemble, and Jayden Peszko as Ensemble (PlayMakers Repertory Company in the Paul Green Theatre in UNC-Chapel Hill's Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art). TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYAm2mD2Alw&t=1s. FEATURETTE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swfxe30goUM&t=2s. PLAYBILL (Desktop Version): https://online.fliphtml5.com/gtelh/Macbeth-Playbill-Jfbf/. PLAYBILL (Mobile Version): https://playmakersrep.org/playbill-for-macbeth/. PRESENTER: https://playmakersrep.org/, https://www.facebook.com/playmakersrep, https://www.instagram.com/playmakersrep/, https://www.tiktok.com/@playmakersrep, https://x.com/playmakersrep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayMakers_Repertory_Company, and https://www.youtube.com/@PlayMakersRepertory. 2025-26 SEASON: https://playmakersrep.org/season/2025-2026/. PRC BLOG: https://playmakersrep.org/about-us/our-blog/. VENUE: https://playmakersrep.org/about-us/paul-green-theatre and https://unchistory.web.unc.edu/building-narratives/paul-green-theatre/. DIRECTIONS/PARKING: https://playmakersrep.org/visitor-info/directions-and-parking/. MACBETH (Five-Act Tragedy, full title: The Tragedy of Macbeth, written circa 1606-07): https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/macbeth/, https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-plays/macbeth/, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Macbeth-by-Shakespeare, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth. THE SCRIPT: https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/macbeth/#full-text. STUDY GUIDE (Utah Shakespeare Festival): https://www.bard.org/. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (Elizabethan and Jacobean English playwright and poet, 1564-1616): https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/25200, https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-life/, https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/william-shakespeare/william-shakespeare-biography/, https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/william-shakespeare, https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Shakespeare, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare. SHOW ADVISORY: PlayMakers Rep cautions, "Macbeth contains mature themes and language. Production elements include flashing/strobe lights and lots of haze." For details, click here and scroll down to the CONTENT TRANSPARENCY (SPOILERS AHEAD section. RELATED EVENTS: For details, click here and scroll down to the Special Performances section. NOTE: Arts Access, Inc. of Raleigh will audio-describe and sign-language interpret the show's 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 18th, performance. TICKETS: $20 and up, plus taxes and fees. Click here to buy tickets. INFORMATION: 919-962-7529 or prcboxoffice@unc.edu. PLEASE DONATE TO: PlayMakers Repertory Company.

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