MACBETH & MERYL
This summer's free productions of Shakespeare in the Park are only for those who wait on line. According to Oskar Eustis, The Public Theater's artistic director, attendees tend to be young, smart, price sensitive, students, fanatics. "When you eliminate the economic barrier of going to the theater, that alone has a huge impact on your audience." He continues: "We obviously are not doing museum versions of these classics. We risk vulgarity in the interests of accessibility. It's a risk I'm happy to take." So what is the contemporary relevance of the season with Macbeth starring Liev Shreiber (June 13th-July 9th) and Meryl Streep in Mother Courage and her Children (August 8th-September 3rd)? "In those two plays we have two different ways of how a theater can respond to a country at war, which we are," explains Eustis. "In Macbeth, one of the things that Moises Kaufman, the director and Liev Shreiber (Macbeth) are focusing on is what happens to the conscience and moral fiber of a country when it takes the values of the battlefield and applies them to domestic politics. What we watch, of course, is a tragedy of incredible moral decay that feels unfortunately, very relevant. I think the question in Courage is why do people put up with war? Why do people make choices that end up destroying themselves? It also gives us a chance to give the greatest actor of our time (Meryl Streep), a crack at what I think is the greatest role in the 20th century."