The Stage

Macbeth

Published Monday 12 July 2010 at 10:20 by Susan Elkin

Rarely can Macbeth’s usually unnoticed line “I ‘gin to be aweary of the sun” have resonated so effectively as it did on the sweltering afternoon, the hottest so far this year, at this thoughtful and entertaining Macbeth “re-imagined for everyone aged six and over”.

A sinister romp under nature’s own spotlight in the sky, this fine show impresses from the high paper backdrop sporting graffiti to continuously update the story to the three huge swan puppets which invert to become hideous, bony witches.

Josephine Butler’s Banquo, first resolute in combat gear, then gentle with Fleance - here a baby in arms - puts an appealingly fresh feminist twist on the play. She is also delightful as a kilted, bespectacled composite character which subsumes Ross and Young Siward among others.

Like all the actors in this cast, Butler speaks the verse with admirable clarity and makes it very easy for Shakespeare newcomers to follow.

Trevor White’s Macbeth speaks with an American accent, the incongruity of which soon ceases to register. White is good at making the subtext very plain for the audience in, for instance, the scene in which Duncan names Malcolm as his heir, and during soliloquies

Harry McEntire gives us a convincing and boyish Malcolm who has a central, quasi-narrative role in this production. Eamon Boland is good value as the self-important Duncan and later as a toadying, manipulative “cream-faced” Seyton.

Golda Rosheuvel’s Lady Macbeth is deft and disturbing, especially during the sleepwalking scene and Simon Trinder digs out Macduff’s anguished revenge with, eventually, near pantomimic satisfaction.

In a show full of innovation, the spell scene in which things - fillet of a fenny snake, tooth of wolf, ravin’d sea salt shark and the rest - are flung into the huge bubbling on-stage pond, accompanied by a spurting fountain of baboon’s blood, is particularly impressive.

In a full-length production for adults such excess might, like the filmic sound effects and background music, have been laughably over the top. In this context it works perfectly.

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