MACBETH. To 3 April.
Colchester
MACBETH
by William Shakespeare
Mercury Theatre To 3 April 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 25 March, 1, 3 April 2pm
BSL Signed 25 March 7.30pm
Talkback 24 March
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
TICKETS: 01206 573948
www.mercurytheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 March
A clear if rarely inspirational Macbeth.It starts theatrically, shafts of Robin Carter's light making Macbeth and Banquo seem to appear and vanish - equivocating, as it were, about what's going on - while Adam Cork's folk-rock, Scots-tinged score blasts over the heath. Strangely, the scarlet-clad Weird Sisters add an air of normality, something that continues the measure of this Macbeth, not always to its advantage.
Yet it's a clear, consistent account, accessible for first-time viewers, including the school groups that will doubtless flock. And Victor Gardener's heroic-mould Macbeth makes admirable sense of the character's trajectory.
The effort to screw himself up to murder Duncan intended as a once-for-all crime is then undermined by anger at doing it for the seed of Banquo' and he's off down a slope which re-aligns his personality.
Lady Macbeth's facile assurance that a little water clears us of this deed' is challenged by her puzzlement at the midway moment her husband cuts her from his preoccupations. Katy Stephens finds the culmination of this in the desolate despair catching her voice during the final sleep-walking scene.
Sara Perks' open-space setting, a platform riven by a crack through which blood-red lava seems induced to flow by the Weird Sisters' later incantations, makes a point when the sole pictorial element, a subdued-colour vista, rises to admit the altered prospect of Macbeth's future, the mobilised forest of Birnam.
But too much is subdued; Stephens' green-based costume goes with a cool manner. She doesn't have to be a fiery tigress pushing her husband on, but there's a chemical void between them never overstepping the mood of polite regard. And the banquet-scene's table - a floor-section rising to be suspended by bright chains - muffles the impact of Banquo's bloody ghost at the feast.
The production's too often static, with lines dutifully delivered. Yet having the second messenger to Macduff's family turn into a co-murderer adds piquancy who can you trust? while the England scene does well, Ignatius Anthony giving Macduff a purposeful concentration and Timothy Mitchell impressive as a young Malcolm trying out his personality against the still-unexperienced notion of kingship.
Macbeth: Victor Gardener
Banquo/Servant: Toby Longworth
First Witch/Gentlewoman: Christine Absalom
Second Witch/Doctor: Katharine Barker
Third Witch/Lady Macduff/Seyton: Shuna Snow
Duncan/Porter/First Murderer/Hecate: Roger Delves-Broughton
Malcolm/Second Murderer: Timothy Mitchell
Bleeding Sergeant/Lennox: Justin Grattan
Ross: Tim Freeman
Lady Macbeth: Katy Stephens
Macduff: Ignatius Anthony
Donalbain/Soldier: Thomas Povey
Scottish Soldier: Chris Swanson
Fleance/Young Seyward: Charlie Evans/Nathan Jones
Son of Macduff: Joseph March/Sean Tricker
Director: Craig Bacon
Designer: Sara Perks
Lighting: Robin Carter
Composer: Adam Cork
Fight director: Richard Ryan
Assistant director/Movement: Nicola Rosewarne
2004-03-23 13:33:46