Macbeth (Filter-Tobacco Factory)

The curse of Macbeth has struck again! Exactly how and where the theatrical superstition comes from is a matter of some conjecture but there’s no doubt that the ‘Scottish Play’ is one of the toughest plays to get right, filled as it is with witchcraft, ghosts and floating daggers. Not that Filter show any of this. They don’t really show anything at all.

Filter’s adaptations of Shakespeare normally work best when showcasing them at their anarchic best, their version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream really was a dream, but they’ve really missed the mark here. They’ve stripped away the mysticism, there is no interest in finding the dark heart at its centre, and what is on offer is a minimalist production whose narrative isn’t clear and more criminally seems to run out of ideas five minutes in. It’s a frustratingly experimental piece that is in danger of losing its audience long before the end.

You really need to have a working knowledge of this play to keep up with it. It tells its story in fragments and moods, but sticks to the arc of the play so that most of the key elements are there. Perhaps they would have been less hamstrung if they’d thrown narrative away and really got to the heart of what makes this play tick.

On a rectangular platform the six actors play their roles and head to the centre to contribute to the synth heavy score which seems to be the main building block for this production. Weirdly they seem to be more comfortable in creating this score (which sometimes seems to be battling against the action) then they do creating the drama. They seem to have hit on the performance style of bland; interchangeable monotony, with only Poppy Miller as Lady Macbeth grasping hold of her role with any sense of verve or play. Oliver Dimsdale as Macbeth, face painted as a Nolan esque-clown, speaks the verse pleasantly and concisely as though he is competing at a recitial, its not that he misses the bar in trying to find the characters descent into darkness, he just doesn’t bother with the vault.

This is the first stage in a work that I’m sure will change substantially as they tour. At this moment in time it feels like a workshop production that shouldn’t have been green-lit. The anarchic play of Filter is nowhere to be seen. There mojo has been temporarily lost.

Macbeth plays at the Tobacco Factory until the 20th September.