If earnest effort made art, this would be a Macbeth worth seeing. But since this earnest thing doesn't usually work out, this is one of those painfully bad productions that has nothing to recommend it. It would be nice to be able to welcome Curio Theatre to the community, but nobody needs to sit through this.

Curio's mission is to "adapt and bring to the stage classic works from a variety of media: novels, poetry, plays, artwork, history, myth, folklore; and to further educational, social, personal and cultural development through the arts." With such an immense and unfocused sense of purpose, and with the odd notion that Shakespeare needs to be adapted to the stage (file under chutzpah), Jared Reed, Curio's artistic director (and the production's boyish Macbeth), pared the play down to one and three-quarters hours without an intermission. And with only five actors. And with virtually no stage action. And no scenery and next to no costumes except for all-purpose sheeting serving as royal robes, walls, scrims and blankets. It's like watching a talking book that doesn't talk very well. If you don't know Macbeth, you could not possibly follow the plot from this show. If you do know Macbeth, you don't want to listen to these young actors mangle some of the most magnificent speeches written in the language.

Somebody had the bright idea to use masks, which means faces cannot register any emotion. And these inexperienced actors don't seem to know that intimate scenes need to be projected and not murmured (Hello, hello: There's somebody else in the room!) and that many people in the room actually know those famous speeches, so they need to be delivered, not just recited.

Of the five actors, only Paul Kuhn as Macduff conveys any feeling or meaning. Gay Carducci directs.

MACBETH Through Sept. 11, Walnut Street Theatre Studio, Ninth and Walnut sts., fifth floor; Sept. 15-24, Calvary Center, 48th St. and Baltimore Ave., 215-525-1350 www.curiotheatre.org