Mixed reaction for Macbeth in the buff

Arlington, Virginia: Audience reactions to the Washington Shakespeare Company's Macbeth are telling: Folks in the front sometimes cringe and move back a few rows during intermission. One man watched the play with a programme in front of his eyes, blocking out the lower half of his field of vision.

Clearly, an all-nude production of the Shakespearean tragedy is not for everyone.

Despite mixed reviews, the play has drawn healthy audiences to the small theatre company's playhouse in Northern Virginia, and the director and cast say the production is fulfilling its artistic vision: exposing the primal nature of man's ambitions and fears.

The play's director, Jose Carrasquillo, said he was inspired to create a radically different visual presentation after reading the same histories of the Scottish people that Shakespeare is believed to have read before writing Macbeth. They described "a really tribal, almost animal-like clan and society," Carrasquillo said.

"I thought it would be amazing to do a show with this feel in mind." Then he focused on the three witches who open the play.

Carrasquillo envisioned them as conjurers who actually bring the players in Macbeth to life.