Curtains Rise on a Hard-Luck ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Woman-Hater’s Club’

Has Macbeth’s curse fallen on the Odyssey Theatre?

“It sure seems like it,” said artistic director Ron Sossi, who is hosting Charles Marowitz’s production of “A Macbeth,” a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s work that opens Saturday. “We’ve had a lot of illnesses and injury, people have gotten other jobs and had to withdraw. We’ve gone through three Lady Macbeths, we’re on our third Duncan, our fourth costume designer. Whenever I hear from Charles, I expect it’s going to be something bad that’s happened.”

According to legend, the play is jinxed, and brings on bad fortune wherever it is performed. Most stage actors are taught early on never to speak the title inside a theater, but refer to it as “The Scottish Play.” If there is a slip of the tongue, said Sossi, “There’s this whole elaborate ritual you have to do: go outside, spin three times, spit, read a passage from ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’--and then you can knock on the dressing room door and ask to be let back in.”

Sossi said that in this rearrangement, Marowitz “is leaning rather heavily on the supernatural elements, with the witches as a through-line--and Lady Macbeth is one of them. The play is done as if it’s a spell concocted by her and the witches.” Although many of Shakespeare’s scenes are reordered (or trimmed entirely), the dialogue is unchanged. As for casting, it’s multiple: a single Lady Macbeth will play off three Macbeths, “each representing different aspects of the character.”

“A Macbeth” plays at 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A., through March 31. Tickets: $17.50-$21.50. Information: (213) 477-2055.

“These men love women, they worship them,” insisted director Robert Schrock of John Knoerle’s three-character comedy, “The He-Man Woman-Hater’s Club,” which recently opened at the Tiffany Theatre in West Hollywood. By way of example, Schrock quotes a line from the play: “Let’s toast women: You can’t live with them . . . and you can’t shoot them.”

Hmmmmmm. “Women are the enemy--in a comedy sort of way,” allowed Schrock, who co-authored with Kirby Tepper the musical “Back Home” at the Cast Theatre in 1986. “These three guys get together to talk about how important women are to them. They’re likable guys who have all the answers--and none of the answers. One of them is married. One of them, in the course of the play, gets married and divorced. One of them is single.”

In spite of the seeming sexism, Schrock hopes female theatergoers won’t stay away. “In readings, women love it,” he said. “They like to see men in this light, making jerks of themselves. I also think women like to see themselves put on a pedestal as these men do. Men can relate to it, too. Every man has this side: the chauvinist who wants to conquer--without losing himself. They don’t want to be ruled by women, but they absolutely are.”

“The He-Man Woman-Hater’s Club” plays at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays at the Tiffany Theatre, 8532 Sunset Blvd., through March 31. Tickets: $15. Information: (213) 289-2999.