Macbeth

Synopsis

The Scottish Play - theatrical types consider saying its name to be unlucky! Thrust into power by his overwhelming desires and an over ambitious wife, Macbeth finds his only security is to murder and murder again. From "When shall we three meet again" to "is this a dagger I see before me" this is a powerful Shakespearean drama.

Our Review:

27 September 2007

There are so many brilliant ideas in Rupert Goold’s production of Macbeth – which has transferred triumphantly to the Gielgud for a ten-week season from the small Minerva in Chichester – that you wonder if the whole thing can hang together. It does, just about, because the jolting of the nightmare Eastern European tyranny of Macbeth up against the insistent contrast between Scotland and England in the second half of the play survives all the wrenches forced upon it by the concept. And the whole evening is so exciting.

The world of the play is an abattoir, kitchen, hospital and prison all in one, with the witches supervising episodes of murderous hospitality in nurses’ uniforms. The “temple-haunting martlet” that Duncan (Paul Shelley) so enjoys is under the chopper and on the menu. The place is fitted out in Anthony Ward’s design with white tiles and an ominous, cranking lift that delivers victims to their fate in a sinister hell hole.

The I...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 29 November 2007:

Although I have some reservations about Rupert Goold's direction (the withches and Seyton in particular) there is no doubt that the Stalinist setting is a triumph. Macbeth is a political thriller and this production mirrors the internecine struggles between Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky with the addition of moments of horror and a scary sound design by Adam Cork. Unfortunately Patrick Stewart was still struggling with a throat infection so his performance seemed to be holding something back, but there was excellent support, particularly from Michael Feast, Martin Turner and Tim Treloar. However, unlike the RSC some of the smaller roles were very poorly acted. Kate Fleetwood's Lady Macbeth was sexually charged and full of dangerous ambition - she strangely reminded me of the wife of a former PM. Goold's Macbeth is undeniably exciting and visceral but not quite the definitive version some have felt it to be....

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