Practical Magic: 'Macbeth'

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"['MACBETH'] IS MEANT to be seen and heard, not read in a classroom," asserts Teller, the quieter half of the illusionist double act Penn & Teller. He and director Aaron Posner have devised a bloody good time with their production of "Macbeth," which opens tonight at Folger Theatre.

"Shakespeare puts in knives, gore [lots of it], spirits, ghosts, murders, jokes, magic and intense physical fights. All of that is right there in the text. We're just trying to show you what Will wanted, albeit with some techno-twists that weren't around in his day."

Teller is hardly soft-spoken when you get him started on the Bard and this particular play.

"'Macbeth' is Shakespeare's supernatural horror thriller, but is often done like a standard tragedy," he said. "We are trying to approach it more with the sensibility of a scary movie — but with an unusually fine script. This Shakespeare guy, he may make it big."

Part of the allure is the seductive manipulation that Lady Macbeth employs on her brutal husband. "They're not like Leatherface in 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre,'" he said. "The evil powers don't directly maim or murder anybody. They just provide misleading [intelligence] that gives permission for Mr. and Mrs. Macbeth to commit the murder they desire to commit."

The ability to mislead — or, more accurately, manipulate perception — is precisely what Teller has made a career out of with sleight-of-hand finesse.

"Magic is a way of enjoying everything that's good about lying with none of the bad stuff," he said, adding, "You get to enjoy that delicious explosion that happens when what you see collides with what you know. How we decide what is real and what is just in our heads is pretty much the most important decision we make. Even the dumbest card trick raises that question, and it's one that should never leave us."

Particularly tantalizing for the co-directors was dramatizing how ends are influenced to justify means.

"You're going to get inside the brains of drama's greatest husband-and-wife killing team," Teller said. "You share and see their dreams. When they lose their minds, you see their nightmares. You feel what it's like to be a real human being who's decided it's OK to kill — just this once — to make a better tomorrow. We also hope you'll get some laughs, screams and a few moments of real head-scratching 'How the heck?'"

A town often graced by the phantoms of deception, doublespeak and manipulation, Washington seems an ideal place to stage such a story. It certainly provides an illusive backdrop for a magician in search of inspiration.

On a recent moonlit stroll, Teller visited the Lincoln Memorial and encountered "a spectral [but real] musician playing a slow, abstract flute rendition of 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic.' That's about as thrilling an experience as an American can have."

» Folger Elizabethan Theatre, 201 East Capitol St. SE; through April 13, $25-$55; 202-544-7077. (Capitol South)

Written by Express contributor Christopher Correa
Photos by T. Charles Erickson