The Stage

Macbeth

Published Tuesday 10 October 2006 at 18:15 by Duska Radosavljevic

Entirely covered in maple panelling, lime green carpets and crystal glasses, the set for this show could be home to a Noel Coward play, except for a massive plazma screen welcoming Lord and Lady Macbeth to the Royal Shelton Hotel in Dunsinane. This same device will open up a multitude of possibilities for broadcasting Shakespeare’s story from a variety of locations through a mixture of news reporting and a range of television genres, including a pop video named the Weird Sisters’ Wicked Brew. In places this works a treat but the concept soon begins to reveal its limitations.

A lot of the main action, such as the banquet itself, is removed from our view so that we can quietly monitor the Macbaths’ inner turmoil backstage. Another potential drawback is the fact that this naturalistic framework inevitably demands an awkward shift in the delivery of the text.

However a closer look at the castlist reveals the rationale behind this production and the company’s nearly ingenious handling of the logistical task they set themselves.

The six-strong ensemble, including the directors and a teenage debutante, take on 17 characters between them. Karina Fernandez particularly stands out in her versatility while Robert Gwilym and Katherine Rogers look the part as the ambitious soldier and his formidable wife. Whereas the show might sometimes lack an outside eye, its multimedia approach certainly opens up new points of view on the story.