Hamlet in the Hickory Community Theatre

All the word’s a stage and all the men and women merely players, well, that’s the way that Hickory likes it, especially when its Community Theatre crew gets turned bloody loose in the Jeffer’s auditorium. Tonight it was Macbeth on stage, and the cast handled it well judging from the response.

Beth Woodard in the role of Lady Macbeth grabbed the audience and played her exceedingly difficult role exceedingly well. In one scene near the end, she got lost in ironic laughter that blossomed into maniacial giddyness. She should have been killed right then, instead of having to do it herself later.

John Rambo as Banquo (and later as a Scottish doctor) played perhaps the most workmanlike role and handled his part well. He provided balance and a center to the action when he was playing as Banquo. Nice.

There was another guy who did well but we lost his name. He was dressed in 1930’s style uniform with a pistol under a holster flap. We thought he was impressive. The third witch - the one with the white face - she looked like she could really be dangerous. Had to keep our eyes on her, and that was easy to do.

The most spectacularily good and bad performances have to go together to the special effects people. Their motto appeared to be “When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning, or in rain?” Well, I wouldn’t have had that job for all the crowns in Scotland. Every time you touch a switch or a control “something” happens, just like my computer and stereo system.

It all came together very well and all the actors survived for the final appearance before the audience, including somebody’s head still lying on the stage, and the audience applauded wildly, and for the first time in history Macbeth had a happy ending.