David Stallings and Antonio Minino take the lead in Macbeth (of the Oppressed).
By Brandon Voss
And you thought Lady Macbeth was a handful? Wait until you meet Mr. Macbeth’s husband.
Adapted and directed by Tom Slot, Macbeth (of the Oppressed), a new multicultural LGBT reimagining of the Shakespearean tragedy, opens October 10 at the Theater at the 14th Street Y with Antonio Minino as Macbeth and David Stallings as Husband Macbeth. So long, Lady!
“The first question people ask when they hear I’m playing Lady Macbeth is, ‘Are you in drag?’ No, I am playing it as Macbeth’s husband, and we are treating the relationship very seriously,” says Stallings of the production, which preserves the Bard’s original text. “As a gay man, it feels like I now have a voice in a classic where I was never allowed to before. I am often asked to put on a masculinity I find false, especially when doing Shakespeare. But with all the gender roles basically thrown out the window, I get to be myself and find the honesty in every moment.”
Among the other gender-flipped characters, the rival Macduffs are played by two women. “Plays and movies really don’t show gay couples unless the subject is about them being a gay couple,” Stallings continues. “We wanted to know what would happen if we made two couples from Macbeth gay without commenting on it. It adds a nice layer to hear lines about masculinity and femininity with different sexes attached.”
Adding yet another layer is the fact that Stallings and Minino are also husbands in real life. “There’s a certain trust that can only be acquired from having shared time together,” says Minino, who notes that they’ve been cast as partners before. “That doesn’t mean you have to be married, but it doesn’t hurt either.” Stallings agrees, adding, “To play Husband Macbeth opposite my real-life husband truly grounds me in the fact that everything I say must come from a place of truth and love.”
But with a bloodbath like Macbeth, isn’t it hard to leave that toil and trouble at the theater? After all, what’s done cannot be undone. “It’s definitely very intense, but nothing a bottle or two of wine and trash TV can’t wash off before going to bed,” Minino says. Out, damned spot, indeed. “Sometimes we do have to say to each other, ‘OK, no more talking about the show, we need to relax.’”
Minino and Stallings, who’ve been acting together for 10 years, were married two years ago. Their wedding actually took place on the very same stage where they’re now starring in Macbeth (of the Oppressed). “It was right after the matinee of one of David’s shows that I was in,” Minino recalls. “Needless to say, I forgot some lines that performance.”
Next, October 2015.