500 Clown Macbeth

I was nearly 40 before I realized how much I love clowns. Not Bozos--clowns via greasepaint and padded costumes and innocuous balloons--but clowns who are verbally as well as visually absurd. Clowns who try to solve problems with obvious solutions that they just can't see.

This show consists of a trio of earnest and bumbling clowns tasked with putting on a production of Macbeth. Suffice it to say that things don't go as planned. But in spite of an array of distractions and physical catastrophes, the show--by its close--manages to evoke the main themes of Shakespeare's play: ambition, goaded into murder, and finally remorse.

Not bad for a bunch of clowns.

This show is visiting the Steppenwolf stage through the rest of June and most of July. Click here for the Steppenwolf calendar.

Filed in: Theater