Tom Gualtieri first condensed Macbeth into solo form - and a deeper analysis - 13 years ago. Coaxed into reviving at Stage Left Studio, he may seem to be deferring to the unwritten rule of never uttering title character's name by again leaving it off the main billing in his latest iteration of That Play. On the other hand, does the A Solo Macbeth found in the subheading mean he's deliberately taunting the apparitions who undid the greatest of Shakespeare's tragic heroes?

Tom Gualtieri: The whole point of this play and my adaptation is bringing the darkness into the room, speaking about it and not pretending it doesn't exist.

Times Square: Does the audience get the historical irony of your intentions?

Tom Gualtieri: Savvy theatre people do but for others they certainly learn it through the course of the evening.

TS: How does this deeper understanding emerge in your adaptation?

Tom Gualtieri: Macbeth is all about the darkness inside all of us, and the idea is even more pronounced in comparison to Shakespeare's other tragedies. The others all have some piece of redemption by the end. As a result, you don't walk away looking at yourself. Compounding it in my version, I've whittled down to only the essential dialogue, and in between, there's also a narrator who guides us along with ironic commentary, which continually reminds the audience to look at themselves.

TS: Are the Stage Left ghosts on hand Ok with this?

Tom Gualtieri: I think there's a kind of support coming from the spiritual world that may not happen with other productions of Macbeth, where everybody is so cautious about the evil and horror that happens.

TS: I'm glad you got that going for you. That said, this has to be quite an undertaking.

Tom Gualtieri: I would say it is and people are always asking me if I'm exhausted.

TS: I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Tom Gualtieri: Well, the first thing other actors want to know is how do I memorize all the lines, but that's the easy part. Dealing with this really dark stuff is pretty intense and your body is physically and emotionally stressed in the way it would be if these things were actually happening to you. So it's an undertaking in that way, but exhilaration is what I feel.

TS: It still must knock you out?

Tom Gualtieri: You have to find a way to recharge and get yourself back together when the play is over. As it turns out, I sometimes forget to do that, because I'm having so much fun doing this.

TS: Reading your blog, you seem a bit perturbed that you're not the only solo Macbeth.

Tom Gualtieri: You do often see adaptations at the same time, and it's very hard to face that, but I found it really peculiar that three different people would do a solo Macbeth within a decade of each other. Of course, my press agent keeps telling me to remind people I was the first. But when I found out that Aaron Cummings was doing this in the same season as me – and after my head exploded – I decided there's a fun little competition element to it. I kind of hoped the press would have picked up on it because we're a small off-off Broadway production so any attention would have been good. Still, we've had very good, consistent and steady attention nonetheless.

TS: But there still must be something wrong with those others guys who've done this solo?

Tom Gualtieri: I think they probably have the same demons that I do, as this really is Shakespeare's horror story.

TS: Horror story?

Tom Gualtieri: Yes, an internal horror of your own darkness, and I seem not to be the only one who felt the need to examine that in myself.

TS: What do you do if the other actors are uncooperative?

Tom Gualtieri: There's nothing you can do, but turn to the audience, and say, look I just screwed up. No, it's a great element for me to be alone. I love being able to communicate with the audience. If for instance, I do get a line wrong, which hasn't happened yet, I can talk to them. They're my conspirators in the play and I address them directly in 80% of the play. So they're kind of with me for the ride, and they're participants without there actually being any audience participation.

TS: How did this whole thing emerge?

Tom Gualtieri: As I was working on Macbeth in a class, someone told me I don't think you'll ever be able to play him because you're too slight. Younger and slimmer at the time, I thought I'm not going to have somebody tell me I can't do something because of the way I look. I decided I'm going to do it. I'm going to find a way, and in examining the piece, I thought this is the way because everybody has the face of all these people inside.

TS: I know who Shakespeare is. I've even been to his actual house in England. But other than struggling through the stanzas of Romeo and Juliet in high school, I've never read any of his plays. That said, I once made what probably was a profoundly idiotic comment that Shakespeare is overrated. Can you help straighten me out?

Tom Gualtieri: Some people do say that. The thing is Shakespeare plays are written in a poetic 500 year old language that is different in syntax, verbiage and meaning. Obviously difficult to understand, but there's so much in Shakespeare that's extraordinarily clear. When those things ring out, I love to watch people who are not of the Shakespeare scholarly type suddenly perk up because they get it. That is very exciting so to the question, do I think Shakespeare is overrated. He had an incredible ability to get into the human psyche that transcends almost any modern playwright.

TS: You properly put me in my place. As for your part as a modern playwright and actor, do you feel jealous when the narrator gets all the laughs?

Tom Gualtieri: No because it's me and my collaborator Heather Hill. We work a lot through improvisation, and that's how we've come upon this format

TS: If you survive this, what's next?

Tom Gualtieri: I'm so involved in this that I'm not thinking forward.

TS: Fair enough. Thanks for your time.

For more Times Square articles like One Man Macbeth Embraces the Darkness of Shakespeare’s Greatest Tragic Hero, please visit the Stage Interviews Section of TimesSquare.com