Ruth Negga Thinks Lady Macbeth Is Misunderstood

Ruth Negga is dazzling on stage. As Lady Macbeth, she’s a fairly casual staging of Sam Gold’s “Macbeth” at the Longacre Theater, not because she easily wears a gold metallic gown. But rather, it’s so strong, urgent, and energetic that I missed her when she reached the inevitable end of her personality and marriage to Macbeth (Daniel Craig). Because it was blown in.

The negative was nominated for a Tony Award for the best performance by a major actress in the play. It recognizes both her strong stage presence and the gender equality that Gold’s resurrection sought to achieve. “Like a stray cat, she can look quick silver and weightless, or when angry, she’s menacing, brave, and twice as big as her,” Jesse Green wrote in a Times review about negative performances. increase.

Even if Lady Macbeth appears in a much lesser scene than her husband, her cunning heart and the negative Shakespeare’s poetic orders leave an indelible mark. “Her language is very fertile, very fertile and very sensual,” Nega said in a video interview last week. “I think a lot of people associate it with darkness, but that’s another layer I think is burdensome and muddy for this character.”

Negatives who play the mysterious and fascinating blonde-haired Claire in the movie “PASSING” and the real civil rights activist Mildred Loving in “Rubbing” are attracted to the characters who try to avoid the social situation they were in. Born. Negatives see Claire, Rubbing, and now Lady Macbeth paying for such a breach. Because they are running out of time or are ahead of her in the case of rubbing.

Born in Ethiopia to an Ethiopian father and Irish mother and raised in Ireland and the United Kingdom, Nega, 40, sees the importance of seeing “Macbeth” as a love story from her location in New York, and she. But Mrs. Macbeth is released. These are edited excerpts from our conversation.

you Play hamlet At St. Ann’s Warehouse just before everything was closed in March 2020. How was it back on Broadway in another Shakespeare play?

My isolation was a book that ended in two Shakespeare plays. This is really interesting because I hadn’t actually been on stage for 10 years before. I didn’t know how much I missed. I think the last two years away from people have exacerbated the feeling of “connecting, connecting.” It’s a very personal visceral experience for those who perform on stage and those who receive it. It’s so immediate and now, and it’s happening live, so that kind of energetic exchange can only happen at that moment. That’s so strange — that’s why I love it.

How did you prepare for Lady Macbeth by playing Hamlet?

I played this young man approaching the age of 40 and just beginning to explore his position in adulthood and in the world. I was guided by this moment of internal discovery and complete honesty. Hamlet is a truth-teller, but he is also a truth-seeker, and I think his regrets, good or bad, can be nothing more than the truth. It’s a very difficult place, but it’s also a place where amazing changes can occur. [The role] Really test your energy, your physical and voice stamina, and what you want to be naked. And because everything is exposed, you really can’t hide anywhere. To be honest, anything after Hamlet is safe.

Was it difficult to know what motivated her with Lady Macbeth?

Before I started the rehearsal, I was wondering, “What is this jazz about her evil?” She’s not evil, it’s this prototype chasing her: a deadly villain, a villain behind a man. That’s what she became known to, and she has been deprived of any peculiarities and personalities.But we disagree [Macbeth] I think she could have been a little more thoughtful because of his procrastination. But the problem is that time wasn’t on her side. This is what happens when you have all these ideas, they look great, things are really going on, and you don’t have much time. When you think about it, I mean she makes one bad mistake.

Which one?

Well, I personally don’t think you need to kill people to move on! But I don’t come to the characters trying to justify them, it’s not my job. I’m not interested in it. However, few people act from the heart of evil or evil. I loved her desire to be alive, reach out to her things and work hard. And I was very excited to play someone, especially a woman, who has such a clear idea of ​​what they deserve. And when you realize that your desires and ambitions are limited by the status quo, you have to think quickly with your own feet. They need to be quick and compassionate. That is her talent. There is her self-awareness that makes her look like Hamlet.

The compatibility between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is very clear on stage. Was it important to you?

When I read this script, “Wow, this dies if you believe they love each other. This is the key.” Their relationship is the background or environment of this play. That is the result of their actions. But there is also a very strong love. You feel they both draw power from the union in a very equal and balanced way. And that was important to me. That is to prevent it from being laid down, wasted, or watered. There was a great deal of recognition that this was a marriage of equality and respect, and I loved it.

Marriage is at the heart of several other characters, such as Claire of “pass” and Mildred of “love”, and marrying a white man challenges the status quo.

For me, the race is in the foreground, the background, the present, and it’s not something I had to chase or ignore. It’s with me, it’s in me, it’s who I am. So stories about race, people of color, and stories written by Americans of color have always been intriguing to me. How do people pass through the world as colored people with the structures and limits imposed by society? And how does the status quo go against your personal desires and ambitions? And how do you live the life you want as much as you can in these structures that say “no” to you?

In “Macbeth,” other characters are dressed casually, but at some point Lady Macbeth is wearing a gold gown. why?

It was really important to me and Suttirat [Larlarb], Our amazing costume designer. I think we both fell in love with the lady. My heart is full of joy when I see any type of woman accepting who she is. And for me, her femininity is important. Because she was familiar with this idea that it could look like this sexless, rigorous, bloodless, dull kind of shell. I didn’t want to be ashamed of her, live well, really enjoy her sexuality and her femininity, and not be afraid to stand out from her crowd, as it doesn’t chime with the lady on the page. It was.

Is there another Shakespeare character you would like to play?

I remember giving Queen Margaret’s speech at college [from “Richard III”]..They are great because they are deadly, powerful and speechy about power. It was extraordinary that Shakespeare gave them them. What I like about him is that he doesn’t make women saints. He gives you complexity. He does not present Lady Macbeth that we can hate. He introduces women who can see themselves and women who are overwhelmed by sadness. She has great catharsis and great internal calculations. And I feel her deeply.