MACBETH: THE EVIL MEN AND WOMEN DO

The mayhem in modern-day movies and TV has nothing on "Macbeth," Shakespeare's tragedy of murderous ambition set on the throne of Scotland. Goaded on at first by his wife, Macbeth dispatches men, women and children to the graveyard right and left in an increasingly emotionless spree eventually counterbalanced by the weight of the deeds on Lady Macbeth.

It is, says director Donald Schulte with a gleaming smile, "a wonderful study of evil."

The Southeast Missouri State University Theatre will present "Macbeth" at 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Wednesday nights, and again at 8 p.m. April 22-24 at the Forrest H. Rose Theatre.

As the "Unforgiven" Oscar attests, modern audiences are quite interested in investigating good and evil. "Macbeth" offers insights into both in a relationship between two people who share a singular lust for power.

Macbeth begins as a very human villain sucked into a vortex created by that lust. "He reflects about what he's doing but he almost impetuously gives in to temptation that first time," Schulte says.

"He's pulled down into this hell of violence."

This "Macbeth" will accentuate this primitiveness, Schulte says, by setting it in the historically accurate 11th century instead of Elizabethan times, and by employing broad swords instead of rapiers in the fight scenes.

With these in the actors' hands, the fights become struggles for survival instead of sporting duels.

Rob Dillon, a faculty member who plays Macbeth's nemesis Macduff, has choreographed the scenes involving the huge, weighty swords. Schulte says the cast learned to use them slowly and carefully.

They'll also wear 40-50 pounds of chain mail apiece, and carry shields made of plywood and Masonite. "It's been a physical workout," Schulte says of rehearsals.

Shakespeare is difficult for young American actors anyway, Schulte says. "The plays are poetry...contemporary American actors are not trained to do verse drama.

"And there is a tremendous demand of energy that the professional actor has learned to budget," he continued.

In addition, the actors are faced with the job of interpreting unfamiliar language to the audience.

"There are terrific demands on the body, the voice and on the mind," Schulte says. "If you can learn to do Shakespeare, you can learn to do anything."

Pat Rebman will play Macbeth and Amy Monfort has the role of Lady Macbeth. Jay Cross plays Macbeth's companion Banquo; Matt Garner is Duncan, the king of Scotland; and George Kralemann plays his son Malcolm.

Also among the cast is Alden Field, a University Theatre mainstay who has the role of Young Siward.

Schulte has specialized in Shakespeare during his 30-year career in the theater, devoting both his master's thesis and his doctoral dissertation to the bard. At Southeast, he has directed "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Othello" and "Taming of the Shrew," and has acted in Coriolanus," "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Taming of the Shrew."

The attraction, aside from the beauty of the blank verse, is the well of meaning available to the audience.

"There are so many layers you can never get to the bottom," Schulte says. "The challenge of trying to uncover as many of those implications for human existence and human behavior is fascinating."

Laced with bitter humor, "Macbeth" was written during the period that produced Shakespeare's greatest tragedies including "King Lear" and "Othello."

"If he had a dark side, ("Macbeth") is his investigation of the darker part of his life," Schulte said.

"Shakespeare's looking at that potential. Freud would have said that's how he's keeping it at bay."

Life is "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," Macbeth concludes.

But the play itself is not so simply interpreted.

"It's a study of...moral opposites that unfortunately are always with us," Schulte said.