The Japanese styled kabuki version of Macbeth, “Lady Macbeth”, was a production produced by the Judson Theatre Department. “Lady Macbeth” sticks with the original plot, but the play focuses on the perspective of Lady Macbeth. The moral of the play was a universal concept seen in everyday life: “what goes around comes around.”

The play opens up with three witches and a prologue. In this prologue, they explain how there needs to be a balance in our life between the light and dark, being brave and being weak, wanting more and knowing when you’ve had enough. They then go on to explain the ultimatum that Macbeth and his Lady are facing.

Now enter Macbeth and his Lady. Macbeth has just come back from war, having slain many of his enemies, giving him this high Lady Macbeth is feeding off of. Her pride soon swells up so much, she becomes hungry for more. It’s not enough for her husband to have won a war, but now she also wants to overthrow the shogun by killing him. The only way to do this is to trick Macbeth into killing his master. Her plan fails so she seeks help from the three witches and she eventually fulfills her plan, but in doing so she seals her fate.

With the power Macbeth has from becoming shogun, also comes greed. This greed was the cause of the death MacDuff family, someone Macbeth saw as a threat. Not knowing her husband killed her beloved friends, Lady Macbeth loses balance between her light and dark side, and MacDuff soon finds out Macbeth was the one who had his family killed.

Cue the sword fight between MacDuff and Macbeth. In this fight MacDuff kills Macbeth, and with his death Lady Macbeth realizes she’s lost everything she has loved, prompting her to take her own life with MacDuff’s sword.

The best acting was done by the three witches, played by Kanani Joaquin, Elimel Perez, and Samara Fraker. Yet, this is not to say the other actors weren’t as good. But the eerie way they spoke, their dull and ragged costumes, and the way the pranced around on the floor like maniacs really sealed the deal for me. This one hour play met expectations and even went a bit beyond. All and all this production made non- theatre goers want more.