MACBETH. To 24 March.
Leeds
MACBETH
by William Shakespeare
West Yorkshire Playhouse (Quarry Theatre) To 24 March 2007
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu 1.30pm Sat 2pm
Audio-described 22 March 1.30pm
Captioned 20 March
Runs 2hr 25min One interval
TICKETS: 0113 213 7700
www.wyp.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 March
Thrilling, chilling Macbeth with an outstanding Macbeth.
I wouldn’t like to spend a weekend with the Macbeth’s. Not for that reason. But it would be very boring. Michelle Fairley’s Lady M, encased in her severe full-length dress, makes clear this is a woman without imagination. No wonder she talks about summoning evil spirits and hypothesises about torturing her children; she can’t imagine what such things would involve. Murdering visiting royalty’s no problem.
Her awkwardly-lengthened smile to Duncan before leading him into the castle suggests it’s not so easy in practice. Rejected by her husband, something Fairley registers in a confused, silent exit, she spirals into decline till, hair wild, stooping, her eyes fix obsessively on the candle that’s her only light.
David Westhead’s Macbeth, a rapid-speaking action man, speculates but as intellectual effort rather than act of imagination. It could be the frustration when Duncan walks up to him, then turns away to announce he’s effectively making Malcolm his heir which propels Macbeth on. He certainly doesn’t listen to Banquo’s argument about evil powers winning people with trifles.
Matthew Flynn’s frank Banquo contrasts a Macbeth who increasingly tunnels into his own sick mind, reaching a lost state in his “Where am I?” (spoken like someone coming round after a blackout) as the Witches depart from his visit. Before the end the “young in deed” Macbeth has become old and tired, ruthlessly purposeless in advanced stages of a paranoia growing from his wish “to be safely thus” - seen in his apparently needless pursuit of the Macduffs.
The finely-performed Macbeths make tyrants' self-destruction more universally clear than explicit reference to a Stalin, Hitler, Saddam or Mugabe could do. Irate negativity also marks the Weird Sisters (two actually men, but that’s equal opportunities for you). Youthful and human, they mark this as a play where inhumane humanity sparks evil.
Surprisingly small-scale (only the banquet scene seems stretched) Ian Brown’s thrilling production plays against huge, dark, anonymous shapes. A gash of light opens as optimism blows in from England, while a huge sword lowers over Macbeth’s period of power, sign that the dagger-man is stabbing his own country to death.
Witch/Murderer: Daniel Abelson
Witch/Fleance/Macduff’s Son: Shane Zaza
Wiotch/Lady Macduff/Gentlewoman: Frances Albery
Duncan/Porter: Andy Hockley
Malcolm: Phil Cheadle
Donalbain/Murderer: Alex Waldmann
Lennox: Christian Bradley
Ross: James Staddon
Macbeth: David Westhead
Banquo/Doctor: Matthew Flynn
Lady Macbeth: Michelle Fairley
Macduff: Antony Byrne
Director: Ian Brown
Designer: Ruari Murchison
Lighting: Guy Hoare
Sound: Mic Pool
Composer: Avshalom Caspi
Movement: Faroque Khan
Voice: Susan Stern
Fight director: Kate Waters
Assistant director: Sam Brown
2007-03-19 12:14:01