The Stage

Macbeth

Published Thursday 4 February 2010 at 11:15 by James Green

This is the tenth year of the much-praised south east London theatre. Past seasons invariably present a Shakespearian production and this time the choice is Macbeth - but set in the Spanish Civil War of the thirties.

A scene from Macbeth at Broadway Studio, Catford Photo: Adam Levy

Director Alice Lacey points up the link between the atrocities of Franco and Macbeth. And for another innovation, the three witches are boys dressed in women’s underthings, played weirdly by Louis Brooke, Joseph Rowe and Rhik Samadder.

The stage is virtually bare, but with props carried on and off for much of the evening, it only needs a modicum of imagination to go with the action.

Gareth Bale as the scheming, murderous Macbeth, indifferent to whose blood is spilt before he becomes king, carries the night. Murder and treason are incidentals on his way to the throne. He acts on the edge of derangement, bloodied by the death of Duncan (you didn’t deserve it Martyn Dempsey, you looked a monarch), and, quite rightly, heads the production. Whether glowering, wheedling, plotting, employing murderers or losing his marbles, Bale earns our hatred along with appreciation for his command of the role.

He is well supported by the Lady Macbeth of Helen Millar. She’s as much a plotting villain as him and such is her playing that she attracts deservedly rapt attention.

Others completing a strong cast are Christopher Tester, George Richmond-Scott, Robert Wilson, Giles Roberts and Emma Deegan. Complaints? Dull openings to both acts and Lady Macduff’s words were lost too often.