Macbeth
Macbeth is renowned for being unlucky – it certainly has been in recent years for theatre companies as no one seems to have successfully got to grips with the play. The RSC, in particular, has suffered from comparisons with the Trevor Nunn production from the mid-70s, which is widely regarded as being the benchmark for modern productions.
However Gregory Doran’s production at the Young Vic has finally produced a staging worthy of the highest praise. From the most thunderous of thunderclaps at the beginning to Macbeth’s gory death, Doran maintains a terrific pace, playing the piece without an interval and finding ingenious solutions to a number of script problems.
Key to this production is Lady Macbeth. This is a woman who is clearly loopy right from the start of the play, and once that has been established, so much of the play makes sense. Her husband has obviously had a full-time job on his hands humouring her whims – murder is just the most extreme of her fancies, the sleep-walking scene is merely the last manifestation of her madness. Doran’s interpretation could even explain away the famous question of her children (or lack of them). This Lady is plainly someone who could imagine giving suck to imaginary babies.
This production also handles another problem of the play – how could Macbeth, who we know to be a fearsome warrior, be defeated by Macduff? Doran’s neat touch is to have Macbeth distracted by the vision of the dagger that he first sees in Act 2 just as he and Macduff fight. Doran also omits Malcolm’s request to cut down the trees of Birnam wood so that, when a curtain falls, we’re presented with a walking forest a coup de theatre for those seeing the play for the first time.
But for all the imaginative touches, the play must stand and fall by the central characters. Harriet Walter is a superb Lady Macbeth, displaying a range of nervous tics and gestures, she manages to convey both overwhelming greed and a woman who is truly on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Antony Sher is not quite so successful as her husband. He’s powerful in the scenes with his wife but does have a tendency to ham it up when left to his own devices. And Nigel Cooke is a sympathetic Macduff, the English scene here is particularly well-played.
This then is a racy, full-pelt production, played without an interval, that’s always thoroughly engaging even Carol Vorderman wouldn’t be bored by this Shakespeare.
