By RAY KELLY
Orson Welles fans who were left cold by Mank will find some relief in Voodoo Macbeth, a production of the USC School of Cinematic Arts that delves into a historic moment in American theater.
Voodoo Macbeth, which premiered at the Pan African Film Festival on Feb. 28, recounts a 20-year-old Welles’ direction of Macbeth with an all-Black cast in Harlem in 1936. It was part of the WPA-backed Federal Theater Project, whose Negro Theatre Unit was tasked with creating jobs and boosting community pride. Welles moved the Shakespearean play’s setting from Scotland to a Caribbean island. Before the play opened, Welles was criticized by those who feared he was creating a demeaning, burlesque production and not hiring enough Black crew. After its opening, Welles was hailed for championing African-American theater. (“By all odds my great success in my life was that play,” Welles remarked a few years before his death.)
Unlike David Fincher’s much-hyped Mank, the writers of Voodoo Macbeth successfully play up an overlooked figure in the Welles orbit (Broadway actress and Negro People’s Theatre founder Rose McClendon), but not at the expense of Welles’ own involvement.
The young cast led by Jewell Wilson Bridges as Welles with Inger Tudor as Rose McClendon gives it their all in this very ambitious undertaking. Bridges may not look or sound like a young Welles, but he conveys the mix of showmanship, ambitious drive and character flaws that make the young director so intriguing. Tudor anchors the film and is suitably heroic and wise playing the doomed McClendon. Kudos also to Daniel Kuhlman as producer John Houseman, June Schreiner as overlooked wife Virginia Nicolson Welles, and Wrekless Watson as Cuba Johnson, a fictional character taking the place of real life cast member Canada Lee.
Shot on a small budget with a grant from Warner Brothers, Voodoo Macbeth‘s costumes and handsomely dressed sets competently convey New York City in the mid 1930s. However, the limited budget means filmgoers are robbed of the story’s dazzling and powerful real life ending: Thousands of people, Black and white, surrounding the Lafayette Theater on opening night.
While Voodoo Macbeth is an entertaining and quite compelling motion picture, it is far from historically accurate.
The movie, which adds a gay subplot and a corrupt congressman to the tale, takes a great many liberties with the truth: Lead actor Jack Carter was not replaced as Macbeth during rehearsals, but actually starred throughout the Harlem run and part of the Broadway shows; McClendon took seriously ill four months before opening night and was not as involved in Macbeth as the movie suggests; Juano Hernandez left rehearsals to take a job with NBC radio, not because he faced deportation; and Welles — who was not stabbed outside the theater — wined, dined and charmed his apprehensive cast.
Despite being the creation of 10 directors and eight writers, Voodoo Macbeth has a remarkably uniform feel.
Credit goes not only to the army of immensely talented students, but to John Watson, who holds the Broccoli Endowed Chair for Producing at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and was project supervisor for the film. Watson has produced 12 feature films, including Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Backdraft and Blown Away, and served as executive producer of more than 300 hours of television.
Voodoo Macbeth is deserving of a wide audience and hopefully a streamer (are you listening HBO Max?) will give this film the distribution it richly deserves.
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(Voodoo Macbeth can be seen screened online via paff.org through March 14, 2021. Single viewings are $8.49 and online festival packages are available.)
Cast and crew (full credits at voodoomacbethfilm.com)
Inger Tudor — Rose McClendon
Jewell Wilson Bridges — Orson Welles
June Schreiner — Virginia Welles
Jeremy Tardy — Maurice
Daniel Kuhlman — John Houseman
Wrekless Watson — Cuba Johnson
Ashli Haynes — Edna Thomas
Gary McDonald — Jack Carter
Hunter Bodine — Martin Dies
Ephraim López — Juano Hernandez
Directors: Dagmawi Abebe, Victor Alonso-Berbel, Roy Arwas, Hannah Bang, Christopher Beaton, Agazi Desta, Tiffany Kontoyiannis Guillen, Zoe Salnave, Ernesto Sandoval and Sabina Vajraca
Writers: Agazi Desta, Jennifer Frazin, Morgan Milender, Molly Miller, Amri Rigby, Joel David Santner, Erica Sutherlin, and Chris Tarricone
Cinematography: Bash Achkar
Editing: Takashi Uchida
Casting: Tracy ‘Twinkie’ Byrd
Executive producers: Tracy ‘Twinkie’ Byrd, Jenna Cavelle, and John Watson
Producers: Miles Alva, Jason Phillips and Xiaoyuan Xiao
Co-producers: John Somers Fairchild, Matt Michienzie and Reef Oldberg
Associate producers: Karla Luna Cantu
Music: Jongnic Bontemps
Production design: Maren H. Jensen
Art direction: Emma Bradford
Set decoration: Alexah Acuña
Costume design: Naomi Wolff Lachter
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