MACBETH

MACBETH

Made in Colchester at the Mercury Theatre

07.10.2014

for The Public Reviews

At first glance, a typical look at Macbeth our contemporary. Naked political ambition, red berets and body armour.

But Daniel Buckroyd's accessible production, his sixth since he took the helm at the Mercury, has unique strengths.

The staging is uncluttered but eloquent. Juliet Shillingford's design has a gloomy blasted heath as its backdrop – could be the devastation of the Somme – and inclined planes for the action. The palace is simple banners, with double-headed eagle, the castles fly in, only the heavy steel door is substantial. The lower level is tellingly used to separate actors from the story – Duncan's heirs, or the cut-throats. Blood is often the only colour in a dark, monochrome world.

The soliloquies, key to the complex characters of the tragedy, are always expressively staged: time slows behind him as Macbeth speaks of his black and deep desires, he slips out of the party he's giving for Duncan [a piano plays gentle jazz]; the dagger is a sound, merely, very much “of the mind”.

Buckroyd sees this as a story of children and childlessness, too, and a small child [variously The Boy, Fleance and Macduff's son] is a powerful presence from the very start – playing with his toy tank, exchanging his wooden sword, momentarily, for a real one, appearing as one of the apparitions, a cardboard crown “upon his baby-brow”. The weird sisters, too, are central: they sing hauntingly at the opening, and their voices are always otherworldly. The soundscape and the music [John Chambers] use techno drums for battle, melody for the witches, and some chilling effects – the scream of an owl, the cry of women.

Stuart Laing is a man-of-the-people Macbeth, never at ease, switching from battledress to dress uniform to casual shiny blue suit. A compelling performance, restless, troubled. His Lady M [Esther Hall], by contrast, is a study in stillness and steely determination. Until her maternal instincts kick in – she appears to warn a woman who rushes off to rescue Fleance and send him away. After the supper, she is left sobbing at the table, and appears again only as a broken reed, her candle held like a dagger before her in a mad echo of her former strength.

A fine company of actors bring credibility to the familiar story, and clarity to Shakespeare's text [no “imperfect speakers” here] – James Marlowe an excellent Malcolm, Nicholas Bailey a human Macduff, Moray Treadwell an avuncular Duncan.

Banquo [Simon Ludders] springs up through a trap to appear at the centre of the last supper table – effective with sound and light, but not without comic effect, and titters from the audience second time around. But for the most part the action is powerfully staged: the death of Macduff's boy, the atrocities of war, “something wicked” as Macbeth enters, even the poor porter [Christopher Price]. The ending is swift – the “leafy screens” are camouflage capes, Macbeth takes off his body armour and is despatched offstage.

Not sure what the children in the audience made of it - “Emily went to sleep”, one mum confessed - but this is an energetic, engaging Macbeth, the classic tragedy clearly and passionately told.

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

MACBETH

MACBETH

Chelmsford Theatre Workshop at The Old Court

13.06.12

My most recent Scottish play was the Polish production at Shakespeare’s Globe, with its grubby gangland setting and its ageing drag queen Weird Sisters.

So Lynn Foster’s Matrix-tainted version for Chelmsford Theatre Workshop seemed very traditional by contrast.

Certainly, it was clear, fast-paced and intelligent, with strong performances in the key roles. And a taut, dramatic ending, with perilously close-up swordplay. Well worth a look, even if you’re not into actors striding around in long leather coats.

Elsewhere, despite the costumes and some atmospheric light and sound, this was a straightforward telling of the tale – easy to follow, hard to stay uninvolved. The couple at the heart of the intrigue were Jim Crozier and his real-life wife, Beth. Jim’s approach was thoughtful, intelligent and spoken with forceful intensity. Given the intimate nature of the staging, a little more light and shade, a little less declamatory power would have helped us empathise – and this is also true of others in the cast.

Beth was a determined dissembler – the "if we should fail" sequence particularly gripping.

I liked Jesse Powis’s infirm dignity as Duncan, and Bart Lambert’s beautifully judged Malcolm. He seemed to me uniquely able to get inside the character, with a combination of technique and natural presence, and displayed an enviable ability to make the verse work for him. The "my poor country" dialogue near the end, with Dean Hempstead's Macduff, was very moving.

Two of the thanes were women – not an easy leap to make, despite the clever justification in the programme note. But both Vikki Pead as Ross and Karen Pemberton as Banquo gave excellent performances, heartfelt and heroic. Pead's scene with Lennox [Danny Segeth] was especially electric.

The boldest concept was to make the "secret, black and midnight hags" glamorous gamers, plotting the fate of kings on their touch-tablets. Weird sisters indeed.

MACBETH

MACBETH

Icarus Theatre Collective at the Civic Theatre

09.05.12

This muscular Macbeth first took to the stage at the Edinburgh Festival last year. Its great strength is the design: a vast red cloth, dark vertical beams, with blood-red gashes to mark each death on the tyrant's path to power. And a prominent super-moon, eclipsed or overlaid with gore and portents. All underscored with massive music [Theo Holloway].

The show is a little longer than it might be, despite the swift pace, since we have messy skirmishes at the start as well as the end, and we see Banquo's banquet twice, from two angles, either side of the interval. This youthful Banquo's death and resurrection were strikingly done, though, and Matthew Bloxham's performances [he was also the Doctor and a paralytic Northern porter] were among the best. I liked Sophie Brooke's Lady M, wanton, languorous and wild-eyed from the start. She too played many parts; characters became witches or assassins in the swish of a cloak. Joel Gorf was Macbeth. He had a commanding presence, and interacted interestingly with the weird sisters, but whereas some speeches ["is this a dagger"] were impressive, some were garbled or thrown away ["murdered sleep"].

Max Lewendel directed.

MACBETH
Shakespeare's Globe
28.04.10


In the early days of the Globe, though production styles varied, the staging was almost always one that Burbage – the first ever Macbeth – would recognize were he to return.
Not any more. And for this Macbeth, the stage is extended out into the yard, and further by a black membrane through which the groundlings can poke their heads. The idea is to emphasise the idea of the underworld. Overhead, two huge concentric rings support black gauzes and chains; crowns, censers and braziers circling above the stage. More hollow crown than wooden O.
This is a dark and bloody production, directed by Lucy Bailey. Soldiers drip with gore, the ghost at the feast appears at the table like a showgirl from some grisly cake. And the porter [Frank Scantori] is the grossest imaginable, relishing every mucky moment.
The witches are powerfully grotesque, with unearthly sounds to underline their influence; they also provide the Apparitions; I liked the music, especially Fleance's gentle song in Act One. The boy has some of the best moments – playfully wearing the crown, escaping up the long ladder to the Heavens above the stage.
In amongst the bleak blackness, the gory pantomime, is a fairly traditional production, with Elliott Cowan a watchable Macbeth, and Laura Rogers slender, sexy but steely as his wife.
But it's the macabre and menace we take away from this infernal world, “smoked with bloody execution”.
Photo by Ellie Kurttz

MACBETH


Playing Shakespeare at Shakespeare's Globe


01.03.10




“ Why are the soldiers having a go at us ? ”


The soldiers are the Macbeth company, convincing squaddies all, save perhaps for Andrew Whipp's Duncan, his red coat under his flak jacket. Mingling with the schoolkids in the yard, demanding passes, and, prompting this whinge, forcing one boy to remove his chewing gum and take it to a bin outside.



A very military Macbeth, this one, with camouflage netting, ammo boxes, smoke, a loud explosion to start, and troops down ladders and along wires.


James Garnon's Thane is a pretty upfront character, but manages to quell almost all the noise for his soliloquies. His Lady M is a coldly elegant Claire Cox, with Matt Costain a gaunt Banquo. Russell Layton's Porter is an irascible Security Man, who does his impro with the audience, just as his predecessor must have done in 1611. And Bill Buckhurst's production has many exciting features. The witches – including two dusty death-faced schoolchildren – appearing from under the tables, and the black-silk apparitions: best I've ever seen.
And since this is the Globe, a lively jig to finish this 100 minutes of high octane theatre.