“So fair and foul a day I have not seen”
When Patrick Stewart’s booming baritone fills the Gielgud with Macbeth’s first line, you can’t help but feel you’re in for a rip-roaring piece of theatre. This is the man, after all who staged “A Christmas Carol” playing every part himself to rapturous critical acclaim.
Stewart's Macbeth is highly theatrical, yet very human and intensely magnetic; as he descendes into insanity, you find you're dragged down with him, so that despite the blood and gore (and despite the fact you know the outcome of his dreadful deeds) you find yourself willing him on to sanity and secrecy.
It’s a brave production with some outlandish, stylised touches - like the huge splashes of blood which seem to emanate from the perpetrators own throats and even a scene where a trio of corpses, with the help of the witches, become puppet-mediums for the voice of the devil.
The action takes place in the gloomy, clinically-tiled kitchen of Macbeth’s castle - the underbelly of the house where Macbeth and his wife plot and scheme and bare the ugliest recesses of their souls. It’s a bare, simple set, which compliments the historical setting. Rather than the distant struggles of feudal kings, this production is brought forward to Soviet Russia; a context that modernises the way you think about the power struggles. When there are military uniforms all about, the blood and gore and ambition seem so natural. But the historical context isn’t rammed down your throat either – it’s there in the costumes, attitudes and mannerisms but there’s no attempt to change the feudal titles or modernise the dialogue. (Heaven forefend! The purists would be livid.)
Watching this production of Macbeth, I was pretty sure that if I had brought someone who wasn’t familiar with the play they would have understood it perfectly. Sometimes, the archaic language can be a real stumbling block, but the standard of the delivery is extremely high and you find yourself totally absorbed in the action as though the dialogue were written yesterday.
Some of the actors (Stewart’s masterful Macbeth aside) breathe a new life into their characters. For example, the reserved family-man Macduff, played by Michael Feast and the amiable, dignified Banquo, played by Martin Turner, are both very full, clear and memorable performances. Kate Fleetwood’s Lady Macbeth is cold, calculating and alienating from the get-go, but as her character crumbles you even find yourself drawn into her feverish regrets.
If you love Shakespeare then you’d be a fool to miss this consummate performance of one of the great plays. If you don’t normally go for anything this “heavy” I’d probably recommend it even more. If there’s a performance that can show how gripping and thrilling Shakespeare can be, this is it. If you’re an aging Trekkie, though, give up now – he won’t say “make it so”, no matter how many flowers you throw.
Tickets for Macbeth are selling fast, so get in quick if you want to see this phenomenal performance.
Buy tickets from £27.50
Sara Sha'ath
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