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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre: Reviews |
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Theatre listings > Macbeth.
This Macbeth has from Anthony Lamble a modern setting on a flagged floor with drains with one off centre entrance at the back and three entrances behind three rectangular pillars either side. The blasted heath is a draughty, deserted car park where the vagrant witches, Ann Louise Ross, Samantha Young and Emily Winter waylay Macbeth. The lighting by Jeanine Davies converts the space into formal dinning rooms, contemporary party conference chambers and a late summer day when the paddling pool is used for the last time. Blood comes at the beginning of this production when the Bloody Captain, John Macaulay is wheeled in, spouting his own red fluid, as he tells of the battle Macbeth has won to Thane Bettany's aged Duncan. His war racked frame is supported by Ewan McDonald's Malcolm, the heir who wants not the crown his father says will be his. The detail of this first scene is maintained throughout the play so lines are enlivened and vigorous. There is water too in this production, used for washing and for extinguishing life, the callous killings of the Macduff family strongly outrages, partly for being carried out in playful and domestic surrounds. But it also outrages because why did the Macduffs think themselves safe when all around people were disappearing? With modern dress and a slo-mo acceptance speech where Macbeth's friend Banquo, Barrie Hunter, confides in the audience the sense of a precarious state where security has gone draws on our knowledge of rulers both here and abroad. It makes all too clear good government is a tender thing frequently dashed by events and ambitions.
Like many modern productions Macbeth takes an active part in one of the later murders and it's here I have a problem. This makes him a different Macbeth from the one Shakespeare wrote where he only actually carries out three murders all on the night Duncan came to stay, the rest after he became king he ordered. Why are today's directors so keen to forget there is greater terror in power exercised affecting destruction of others, assassin and assassinated, by a man who gets others to carry out his evil and implicates them in it? The means of dispatch and fight in Shakespeare's play is usually a sword or daggers. But in this modern set production, although anachronic daggers are used to kill Duncan when it comes to the last fight between Macbeth and Macduff, the director decides to go for a fist fight - ardous and long it is. And there is something about the male with his fists up and flying that is inherently funny to those watching. It's also hard to pace lines designed for use with sharpened blades for fistie cuffs. It's a still strong production, with many good details, of a play very hard to get to work competely, one we perhaps see rather frequently in Scotland. This country, unlike the rest of the world never seem to do Shakespeare's History Plays and our building based companies only ever seem to tackle the best known of his plays, and this one particularily rather too often. Am I alone in thinking the selection is too repetitive? There are 15 Shakespeare's I've yet to see and I go to the theatre in Scotland pretty often. ©Thelma Good 11 September 2004 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast: - Witch - Ann Louise Ross, Macduff - Keith Fleming, Duncan - Thane Bettany, Lennox - Steven Cartwright, Lady Macduff/Witch - Emily Winter, The Porter/The Doctor - John Buick, Lady Macbeth - Irene Macdougall, Ross - Robert Paterson, Banquo - Barrie Hunter, Bleeding Captain/Young Siward - John Macaulay, Macduff's Son - Kyle McCord/Douglad Clark, Malcolm - Ewan McDonald, Fleance - Joe Simmerton/Jack Anderson and Witch - Samatha Young. Other parts played by members of the company. Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. Theatre listings >
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Macbeth - Dundee Rep Ensemble Production. 
Macbeth - Dundee Rep Ensemble Production.