UNIVERSITY HANDLES BARD WITH DEFT TOUCH

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair." That declaration by one of the "witches" certainly describes many of the ambiguities that are part and parcel of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, "Macbeth," which opens tonight at the Forrest H. Rose Theater at Southeast Missouri State University.

But there's nothing ambiguous about the violence, the blood and gore, the wanton killing that are inherent to the play's action. If such is indeed the fare television has promoted public taste for, "Macbeth" certainly fills the bill.

There's much more, of course, to University Theatre's final offering of the 1992-1993 main stage season. The play will be presented at 8 p.m. today, Saturday, and Monday through Saturday next week, and will be given in two matinee performances (Monday and Tuesday) for the special benefit of area schools.

Macbeth, played in full, rich range by Patrick Rebmann, is hailed at the beginning of the play as a hero, staunch and strong, but we quickly come to know that he is driven by the inner devil of ambition, although tortured by his knowledge that this fatal flaw drives him to unnatural deeds.

His evil is reinforced perhaps even caused by the equally overriding ambition of Lady Macbeth, portrayed with fine, sustained passion by Amy Monfort, whose loveliness belies the real nature of her own personal devil; she too suffers, finally, as a result of her inner malevolence.

Assassinating the King of Scotland, the kindly Duncan, well-played by Matt Garner, while he is a guest in their home, Macbeth and his lady are set upon a path of death and destruction that brings woe to the whole nation.

Killed along with Duncan are two bodyguards, the intent being to place the blame upon them. And when Duncan's sons, Malcomb (George Kralemann) and Donalbain (David Brummel), sensing their own danger, flee, one to Ireland, the other to England, suspicion shifts to them.

Meanwhile, however, Banquo was with Macbeth both in the battle preceding the opening of the play, in which both were heroes, and heard the predictions of the witches for both Macbeth and himself; he has become convinced that Macbeth is responsible for the king's death and will certainly cause his. Banquo is done with fine presence by Jay Cross.

The three witches, strident and writhing, are done with convincing abandon by Tina Schaefer, April Elliott, and Kira Birr.

Macbeth, having been proclaimed king, suffers pangs of remorse but is not deterred from eliminating Banquo or anyone else who might stand in the way of his holding the throne. He does, indeed, have Banquo killed, but his hired assassins fail to get Banquo's son, Fleance, played by Lyla Warren, thus leaving open the witches' declaration that Banquo will sire a string of kings.

Macduff, as it turns out, is Macbeth's true undoing. He angers Macbeth by refusing to attend the banquet at which Banquo's ghost appears, and so unnerves Macbeth that the latter is driven into a fit of madness.

Macduff is portrayed with professional expertise by Robert W. Dillon Jr., a member of the university's theatre faculty; his presence on stage doubtless adds a dimension of performance example that imbues the student cast with a high degree of maturity that might otherwise be missing, given the difficulty of Shakespearian material.

The rugged Scotsman not only angers Macbeth by his refusal to attend the feast honoring the new king; the witches warn Macbeth, "Beware Macduff!"; and Macduff, informed of the bloody reign Macbeth has begun, joins Duncan's son Malcolm, the rightful heir to the throne, in persuading the English to help supply troops to rid Scotland of its scourge.

Macduff's final commitment to action against Macbeth does not come, however, until he learns that Macbeth's hirelings have killed his wife (give a well-controlled portrayal by Leslie Stevens) and their two very young sons (enacted with much natural poise by Courtland Kohlfeld and Matthew Long).

Lady Macduff stubbornly refuses to heed the guarded-but-well-meant warnings of Ross (a Scot nobleman sincerely played by Scott Hamann) and even Seyton, one of Macbeth's own officers sickened by the blood-letting (smoothly enacted by DeWayne Bowling), and thus seals many fates in addition to her own.

The scene in which Macduff learns of his family's murders is emotion-fraught, showing the extreme ranges of human reaction to personal tragedy, and its consequences in broader terms.

Two of the most visually and viscerally exciting scenes are the swordfights between Macbeth and Young Siward, boldly played by Alden Field, and the final battle between Macbeth and Macduff. Dillon's specialty is stage fighting, particularly swordsmanship, and he has trained his students well.

Macbeth has, as produced here, 37 characters; in this cast, six actors play more than one role. It is patently impossible, for sake of space, to describe every character's place in the play and to make individual evaluations of all the interpretations.

It must suffice to list those not already mentioned, and to compliment the quality of their performance, which are of high degree: Dan Akre as Seargeant and Old Siward, Kara Cracraft as the Gentlewoman attending Lady Macbeth, Dan Bline and Chris Cook as Macbeth's hired murderers and as Menteith and Caithness, Phillip Stapleton as the Doctor attending Lady Macbeth as she goes more deeply mad, and Sandra Braggs, Tom Eldridge, James Ourth, and Scott Funke, who are assorted lords, attendants, soldiers, messengers and apparitions.

It is well to note that a dozen members of the cast have never before appeared on stage at The Rose, and their accomplishments are significant.

Donald J. Schulte, who directs this fine piece of theatre with a sure and steady hand and head, also was the scenic designer, whose not-so-simple single set ideas have been well executed under the direction of Dennis C. Seyer as scenic artist and lighting designer.

Kari L. Dotson's costume designs (48 costumes, including kilts of several distinctive plaids to identify the various clans, armor, chain mail, helmets, and the like) were executed by Diana Mays and Alan Woolard, with crew assistance no simple task.

Leslie Stevens does the makeup design and Kara Cracraft and Alden Field are responsible for sound design, which includes thunder, lightning and seemingly incessant din of clanking armor, stomping soldiers, as well as screaming witches, winds and whistles and bagpipes.

All the technical material is integrated well to underscore and explicate the complexity of the tragedy, providing visual and audial emphasis and contrasts.

Schulte has cut the script judiciously, keeping in mind the merciless "sound bite" attention span promoted by television, and the action is so varied and intense that the two-and-a-half hour running time, broken by a 15-minute intermission, passes quickly.

And the cast has adapted well to the sometimes convoluted, sometimes straightforward Shakespearian dialogue, delivering lines clearly and without fear, so that even what may seem almost foreign to the eye, merely looking in awe at the written lines, becomes quite easily assimilated by the ear as the eye follows the action of each speaker.

Both the university and the community are indebted to University Theatre for maintaining our contact with The Bard of Avon and some of the finest written and acted literature that is our common heritage. Hail, fair players!