The final performance of Sir Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford’s “Macbeth” came to a fitting end with the audience splashed with rain, mud and blood from an epic battle scene.
During a sold-out run at the Park Avenue Armory, Branagh as Macbeth clashed swords with Scottish clans in ankle-deep mud as rain fell and blood spurted on the seats close to the action.
Sunday’s finale was no exception as two front-row spectators, wearing white, found themselves soiled by a smattering of blood in the battle between Macbeth and Macduff.
The audience included Annette Bening, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Nathan Lane, Lucy Liu and Oliver Stone, who had trained at the Armory in the 1960s in the Army.
Also there was Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, who is retiring after 24 years.
Branagh’s directing Disney’s “Cinderella” and took a break from editing to perform in “Macbeth” while the show’s producer Colin Callender is next developing a stage play of “Harry Potter” with Sonia Friedman in collaboration with J.K.Rowling.