Macbeth 

By Lou Fancher

Encounter all kinds of chill in the Orinda Hills at Cal Shakes’ season closer, Macbeth. There’s no better setting than the outdoor Bruns Amphitheater, where fog rolls in like a locomotive, not only enhancing lighting designer Russell H. Champa’s sure-to-be remarkable illuminations, but sending the mercury plunging. Other things plunging — swords and sanity foremost among them — cast the Scottish general bent on becoming King of Scotland into furious destruction, guilt, paranoia and tyranny. Shakespeare’s tale of the psychological effect of political ambition plays out on theater’s stage as it does daily on today’s worldwide playground — bringing relevance to an over 400-year-old story we can only wish seemed old-fashioned. Wear fleece, rent a blanket to support free performances for school children, and prepare to shiver.