INTERVIEW: Exploring Lennox, the ultimate opportunist, in Broadway’s ‘Macbeth’
Photo: Macbeth stars, from left, Daniel Craig and Michael Patrick Thornton. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by Polk & Co. with permission.
When Sam Gold’s production of Macbeth begins each night on Broadway, actor Michael Patrick Thornton directly addresses the audience, welcoming them to the Longacre Theatre and making a few connections between the words of William Shakespeare and these historic times in 2022. He earns some genuine laughs, while simultaneously setting the scene and kickstarting the events of the play. His opening sequence is followed by a hellish act of violence that takes place in full view of the audience. It’s a startling slap in the face and perfectly showcases the swaying styles of this wartime, bloody story.
“I had seen Sam and Daniel’s production of Othello a few years ago and was really moved by it,” said Thornton, co-founder and former artistic director of Chicago’s The Gift Theatre. “I played Iago at my theater company, The Gift in Chicago, so that production was fresh in my mind. I just really loved how Sam approached the language and Daniel had acted the role, so when I saw the cast announcement about Daniel and Ruth doing Macbeth, I reached out to my team and said, ‘I really would love a crack at this. Just get me in the room for the audition.’ They tried valiantly, and then I called in some favors of people who I knew had worked with Sam. They said, ‘You should give this kid a shot. Please take a look at his tape.’ And I sent in a tape from Chicago, and then there was a Zoom call back. About a week later, we were out in New York for a workshop in November.”
In the play, Thornton plays the pivotal character of Lennox, a man who oscillates back and forth between Macbeth and Duncan. He’s ever the opportunist, trying to figure out how this scheming will end, while simultaneously attempting to guarantee he’s on the winning side. Almost immediately during the rehearsal process Thornton appreciated Gold’s unique vision for the play, which is stripped down with minimal sets or ornamentation.
“My wife is a performance artist, and my background really was in physical, experimental theater when I first started out,” he said. “So kind of alternative approaches to doing traditional plays is right within my wheelhouse. I think everybody was really game for experimentation. There was really no ego in the room, and Sam kind of right off the bat encouraged us all to be co-directors and co-collaborators.”
That opening passage, when Thornton welcomes the audience to the Longacre Theatre, came about two days before opening night. The reason that improvised section exists is because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many cast members were out with the illness, including Thornton. Understudies were working overtime to fill in for the many absences.
“There was no one to do my role one night, so Sam stepped in,” Thornton said. “Sam acted my part. At the beginning of the play, he kind of just went out there and let people know what was up, and found his way into this contextualization of our production of the play, its connection to now and making art during a pandemic. So when I was recovering from COVID, we had a conversation. He said, ‘Look, I think I’m going to have to cut your big scene in Act II.’ Lennox used to have this scene where he was basically spying for Macbeth and trying to see where this other lord’s loyalty lies and then ends up murdering the lord at the end, and it was a fun scene. It was more technically difficult than it was a blast to do, but I was pretty crestfallen about it. He said, ‘But look, I’ve been doing this speech. It’s sort of a pre-show speech at the beginning of the play, and I think you’d be great at it. I’d love to talk to you about it.’ At first, I was like, you’ve got to be kidding me. I just got my big scene cut, and I’m bumped down to a pre-show speech. But then when we talked about it, I realized how humane and fun and beautiful it was. I just called upon my skills and experiences as an improviser and someone who has done a few one-person shows where you have to create a relationship with the audience and straddle that line between comedic and strange.”
In this opening speech, when Thornton talks about the superstition behind the word “Macbeth” and how the history of King James connects to 2022, he can tell there’s an energy in the room. When he looks out at the audience, he suspects they’re thinking the show is about to be canceled, an unfortunate reality for many live-theater offerings during the age of COVID. Instead of telling them Macbeth has been canceled due to COVID, he offers an invitation to go deeper into the text and context of Shakespeare’s words. Then this humorous opening turns violent, and the crowd knows this is not going to be a laugh-out-loud fest.
“I think everyone in the world is not really on solid ground, and so I think the more the production can do that to the audience we’re in a good aesthetic sweet spot,” the actor said about the play’s changing styles. “Alliances are shifting by the minute, and power is being redistributed from scene to scene. And so I think contrasting those two styles at the top teaches you how to receive this production.”
Throughout this journey, which continues into July, Thornton has had fun with the Lennox character. As the production has changed so too has his interpretation of the role.
“If you did the full production and didn’t cut a word and did some rigorous scene analysis, you would still have to do some dramaturgical backflips to sort of make that role make sense and be clear in terms of someone who is on Team Duncan and then switches over to Team Macbeth,” he said. “Are you going to choose to be a Lennox who is secretly hoping for Malcolm to succeed and is going to be a double agent and hope for Macbeth’s downfall? I think once that large scene in Act II got cut, a lot of that preparation had to be thrown out the window. I kind of got hired to do a cold, cerebral Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy kind of aesthetic, and then throughout the course of our discovery of what our Macbeth is and then the curveball that COVID threw us all, it’s more housed in the energy of a clown-witch then it is a character that has a point A and a point Z trajectory.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Macbeth, featuring Michael Patrick Thornton, continues at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets.
