In his program notes, writer and director PJ Perry almost apologizes for rewriting Macbeth. He compliments Shakespeare's "many memorable lines and speeches" and "gene for prose," but decided that Shakespeare needed help with the plot. "I'd felt," Perry writes, "some of the emotion of the play was a bit diluted by extraneous one-off thanes and underplayed relationships."

Shakespeare, Perry explains, omitted some historical figures (Lulach, Lady Macbeth's son from a previous marriage) and some important historical details (Macbeth killed Lady Macbeth's first husband, then married her). He also felt the play had been misunderstood: "Macbeth, himself, is not evil. He just does some things that are very bad, but not for his own sake. He's trying to please his wife." Lady Macbeth isn't evil either, nor are the witches: "This is just what they do. Like people working at the DMV."

After years of research, Perry began rewriting the script, combining the original with an adaptation by Shakespeare's alleged bastard son, William Davenant, plus a few of his own flourishes. The story behind the play, unfortunately, is more interesting than the production. Most of this Macbeth is recognizably Shakespeare's, with a few obvious digressions, and the 21-member cast has the eager but bland veneer of community theater. (When Macbeth mumbles, "Stars, hide your fires/Let not light see my black and deep desires," he sounds less like a man contemplating a murder than a midnight snack.) Even Macbeth's thunder sheet, backstage drum, and peppiest actors—Michelle Flowers as Lady Macbeth, Larry Shaw as Macduff—can't save the production from its lullaby qualities. I snuck out early.