MACBETH, RSC Stratford

MACBETH: William Shakespeare

Albery Theatre 10 February-5 March 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm (except 16 Feb 7pm) Mat Sat & 23 Feb, 2 March 1.30pm
Public Underestudy performance 25 Feb 1.30pm
Audio-described 23 Feb 7.30pm, 26 Feb 1.30pm
Captioned 2 March 7.30pm
Runs: 2h 5m, no interval

TICKETS: 0870 060 6621
www.rsc.co.uk
Review: Rod Dungate, 22 April 2004 at Royal Shakespeare Theatre Stratford-upon-Avon

Cool and analytical, but a great deal of food for thought

Dominic Cooke's production is clear and precise; a coolly analytical dissection almost. Greg Hicks's Macbeth is pushed, rather than driven, by the witches' prophecies. He's certainly at times an unwilling participant in events, at other he appears intriguingly disinterested. These things do add up though. It's as if Macbeth has no choice but to be caught up in his own tragedy indeed, whether he has a choice or not becomes an irrelevant question.

I was working with some bright 10 year-olds on this play once; one of them put the following forward: 'The question is, do the witches prophesy what happens or do they make it happen?' One way or another these witches certainly make this story happen; they prophesy too. Cooke places their influence right at the heart. Macbeth virtually collapses when the final prophesy is revealed to be true (Macduff's birth), he fights to the end, yes, but his fight has gone out of him. Cooke chillingly brings the witches back at the end; Banquo's son, Fleance, future line of kings, is the last to leave. As he leaves, the witches appear, the four stare at each other. Do the witches control future events or do they merely know what's going to happen?

Greg Hicks (Macbeth) and Sian Thomas (Lady Macbeth) embark on their deeds cool-headedly; it's the reality of what they've done (literally blood on their hands) that brings them up short. Their plotting, though, their hope of greatness, increases their sexual desire for each other. As in many things in this production there's a pay-off too. After Banquo's murder and the banquet, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth embrace; but this time there is no kiss they are becoming emptied, can offer each other only mutual comfort and support.

Cooke's staging of the banquet is compelling. Banquo moves around, Macbeth ends up on the table and Hicks lets go of his emotional reins. Metal goblets and plates clatter noisily to the floor the effect is disquieting. Disquieting, too, is Hicks's performance of 'Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow . . .'; he spits it out, highly cynical, full of venom.

High emotions appear in this production but rarely, they appear in fits and starts; emotional outbursts mark moments of significance. Nowhere is this more clear than in Macduff's late scene with the self-exiled Malcolm. (I like Pal Aron's completely broken Malcolm, here; a man in deep depression I thought.) Clive Wood is a big solid man every inch of him and reserved, contained. Receiving news of his wife and children's death, though, he changes also every inch. He stoops, he squats, he literally rolls over in grief. Incredibly moving.

Cooke's is not an overtly appealing production rather more intellectual than emotional perhaps. But there is in it a very great deal of food for thought.

Witches: Louise Bangay, Ruth Gemmell, Meg Fraser
Duncan: Richard Cordery
Malcolm: Pal Aron
Donalbain: Neil Madden
Lennox: Jack Whitam
Fleance: Jack Chamberlain/ Oliver Hayes/ Tom Spackman
Captain: Forbes Masson
Ross: John MacKay
Macbeth: Greg Hicks
Banquo: Louis Hilyer
Lady Macbeth: Sian Thomas
Seyton: John Killoran
Macduff: Clive Wood
Lady Macduff: Ruth Gemmell
Porter: Forbes Masson
Priest: Michael G Jones
Murderers: Ian Drysdale, Sean Hannaway
Gentlewoman: Louise Bangay
Doctor: Michael G Jones
Siward: Ian Drysdale
Young Macduff: Nathaniel Barber/ Jack Fielding/ Callum Finlay
Macduff's Daughter: Grace Griffiths/ Lucy Morris

Direction: Dominic Cooke
Set Design: Robert Innes Hopkins
Costume Design: Tania Spooner
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Music: Gary Yershon
Movement: Liz Ranken
Sound: Andrea J Cox
Fights: Terry King
Company Voice Work: Lyn Darnley

2004-04-23 13:10:10