MacBeth's Digs

Recently, I attended a performance of the California Shakespeare Theater's production of MacBeth. I enjoyed the play as much as I usually enjoy Shakespeare as it was an interesting study of human nature and ambition run amuck. As in many a Shakespeare productions some of the sets and costumes were modernized and when MacBeth called for his armor, they brought out Kevlar. There was some gun play, but the climatic sword fight remained. I endured this and imagined that they were really Scots from hundreds of years ago. What I did not understand was the set. It appeared like an old, abandoned, Victorian building with broken windows and a sink and mirror that looked totally nasty. Hardly a residence deemed fit for a legitimate baron and illegitimate king. Before the play started I was left to contemplate MacBeth usurping the King of the Crack House.