MACBETH. Tour to 1 June.

Tour

MACBETH
by William Shakespeare

Northern Broadsides on tour
Runs 2hr No interval

Review Timothy Ramsden 21 March at Viaduct Theatre, Halifax.

A decent account with a few unexpected features to its credit.For once Northern Broadsides, flat-vowelled speakers of Shakespeare and foreign classic in Yorkshire-voiced translation, are a bit too southerly. But it's not the main violence they inflict on realism. The centre of their stage is dominated by a blasted heath of flaming orange. It's as if Macbeth's entering damnation the moment he treads there.

It chimes visually with the Witches, fashionable young women with flame-toned hair and clothing, camouflaging them extremely well the moment they sink to the ground. Their repetitive, rap-like chant is hypnotic; they are an outstanding aspect of this production.

Certainly more so than Andrew Vincent's Macbeth, a full-voiced, thick-muscled warrior for sure, but eventually too monotone to engage much interest or sympathy. Helen Sheals' Lady M. fares better, casting a puzzled gaze at him when he dismisses her along with others, evidently cutting her out of his plans.

This plain, clear account of the play is distinguished by Tim Barker in two of his three roles. He can't do much with the Porter (who can?) but at least he plays the scene tactfully, with a sense of sozzled thought behind the words. His benign, far from infirm Duncan has a dignity which enforces the horror of his murder. And as the Doctor observing Lady Macbeth's nocturnal ramblings, his medic is a deeply professional observer – the case-notes seem very real.

Director Barrie Rutter casts himself as Hecate, doubling as the prophetic visions which finally do for Macbeth. It's a simple rendering of this final supernatural scene, but the biggest surprise comes at the end, when we're whisked straight off to England, by-passing the killings at Macduff's castle.

It ought to be wrong. Yet the cut works devastatingly well. We're saved the duty of polite laughter at Young Macduff's precocity, and we don't have the immediate superiority over Macduff in England, as he asks after his family. Somehow, too, the talk-laden English scene (which time-travels into classic status less well than any other) has more interest and point when it's not preceded by the witchery and the Macduff killings. Not, of course, to suggest every director….

Witch: Rachel Jane Allen
Witch: Una McNulty
Witch/Fleance: Catherine Kinsella
Duncan/Doctor/Porter: Tim Barker
Malcolm: Adam Sunderland
Macduff: Richard Standing
Donalbain/Murderer: Matthew Booth
Sargeant/Murderer: Richard Hollick
Ross: Jason Furnival
Lennox: Tom Silburn
Banquo: Andrew Pollard
Macbeth: Andrew Vincent
Lady Macbeth: Helen Sheals
Servant/Percussionist/Seyton: Dennis Conlon
Servant/Percussionist: Roger Burnett
Servant: Bryony Rose Rutter
Hecate: Barrie Rutter

Director: Barrie Rutter
Designer: Jessica Worrall
Composer: Conrad Nelson

Tour: March 26-27 Castle Wellingborough, 29-30 Auction Mart Skipton; April 4-6 Thoresby Riding Stables Ollerton, 8-13 Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough, 16-20 West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds, 23-27 Lowry Salford, 30-4 May Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, 7-11 Everyman Liverpool, 16-19 Salts Mill Bradford, 27-1 June New Vic Newcastle-under-Lyme.

2002-03-31 12:33:18