MACBETH. To 11 April.
Manchester.
MACBETH
by William Shakespeare.
Royal Exchange Theatre To 11 April 2009.
Mon-Fri 7.30pm Sat 8pm Mat Wed 2.30pm Sat 4pm.
Audio-described 28 March 4pm.
BSL Signed 4 April 4pm.
Post-show discussion 19 March.
Runs 2hr 40min One interval.
TICKETS: 0161 833 9833.
www.royalexchange.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 2 March.
High theatrical voltage; low dramatic wattage.
It’s twenty years since artistic director Braham Murray produced the Royal Exchange’s first Macbeth. Set in a concentration camp it worked brilliantly because of Murray’s detailed understanding of the play’s dynamics. Matthew Dunster, for the play’s second outing here, includes a collection of modern Macbeth production clichés. It’s hard to know what purpose lies behind his flashy, splashy, trashy account.
Perhaps it’s an attempt to get-behind-the-boredom of school-text Macbeth. Though whether schools will be as pleased as some of their students, who’ll doubtless squeal and scream as Macbeth showers naked centre-stage (revolving considerately), will be interesting to see.
This is a simplistic production and it ignores the core of the play: the language. If Nicholas Gleaves can do more with a soliloquy than treat it as generalised one, or two, note rhetoric, Dunster doesn’t encourage him to show this. There’s plenty of sexual energy when Macbeth and Hilary Maclean as his wife first meet (she’s read his news via e-mail on her laptop), but little sense of their varying relationship. When he spurns her, she’s merely angry and there’s little suppressed panic when he rages at Banquo’s ghost.
There again, Dunster cuts her tell-tale “What, in our house?” at news of Duncan’s murder. Other cuts, some equally strange, allow for such Shakespearean essentials as the Weird Sister child-trio bopping to a ghetto-blaster, a typical updating for short-term effect. The sisters begin quietly watching TV (video footage is used underwhelmingly in later scenes) and end up wild children.
The sense of corruption is more originally, if provocatively used in Malcolm’s final speech. Changing from military to civil dress, he part-rehearses, part-composes it before walking out to deliver it to the crowd. Meanwhile, a Weird Sister hands the bucket of blood and dagger earlier used for that soliloquy to his brother. There are distinctive performances – Leigh Symonds’ functionary, his final objection to Macbeth the stronger from his blank obedience before, and John Stahl’s authoritative Ross (honest that Macduff’s family were at peace, then receiving a text update). But these are fringe advantages in an evening that, despite some high energy, remains disappointing.
Macbeth: Nicholas Gleaves.
Lady Macbeth: Hilary Maclean.
Weird Sister/Lady Macduff: Rebecca Callard.
Weird Sister/Nanny: Niamh Quinn.
Weird Sister: Anna Crump Raiswell/Shannon Flynn/Alexandra Kenyon.
Duncan/Old Seyward: Robert Gwilym.
Malcolm/Murderer: John MacMillan.
Donalbain/Young Seyward/Murderer: Matthew Randell.
Macduff: Jason Done.
Angus: Chinna Wodu.
Lennox: Heather Peace.
Ross: John Stahl.
Banquo/Scottish Doctor: Christopher Colquhoun.
Fleance/Nurse: Vincent Bernard.
Bloody Captain/Seyton: Leigh Symonds.
Son of Macduff: Tom Glynn-Whitehead/Jake Richardson.
Director: Matthew Dunster.
Designer: Paul Wills.
Lighting: Philip Gladwell.
Sound: Ian Dickinson.
Choreographer: Aline David.
Fights: Kevin McCurdy.
Assistant director: Ben Fowler.
2009-03-03 18:31:23