Perhaps the best production of Shakespeare's 'Scottish play' that I have ever seen. It was live streamed from the Donmar Warehouse to the Beacon cinema in Eastbourne; I watched it on 9th Feb 2025.
It was performed in the round on a bare square stage with audience members on three sides. The back wall was a glass screen behind which some of the actors performed, such as the witches (described throughout the play as “wayward” rather than “weird” women although wiktionary does not suggest any etymological link); the audience members were given headphones so that they could hear the sounds coming from these actors. The actors wore black untartaned kilts.
The play was more or less faithful to the text (I think there were cuts to the scene where Malcolm tests Macduff’s loyalty by pretending to be a nasty piece of work), with the notable exception of the Porter (Jatinder Singh Randhawa) who performed as if he were a stand-up comedian, interacting with the audience members to the extent of telling a knock-knock joke with audience participation and a pantoesque ‘I can’t hear you!’.
Starring was David Tennant who managed to make classic lines sound original and conversational, as if they would be spoken by any autocrat simply trying to run his kingdom and stay top dog.
As often in Macbeth, for me, the stand-out moment was Macduff (Noof Ousellam) in the repetitive disbelief of grief upon learning that his wife and children have been killed while Malcolm (beautifully played by Ros Watt) shallowly attempts to use the anger of bereavement to encourage Macduff to revenge himself upon Macbeth.
Other standout actors for me were Cal Macaninch as Banquo and Benny Young giving gravitas in two different ways both as Duncan and the Doctor. Casper Knopf was great as Macduff’s son and Fleance and Young Siward.
I am always intrigued as to how modern productions handle the supernatural elements. It is so easy to tip the play over into melodrama at this point and make it look silly in the eyes of today’s disbelieving audiences. The Grove Theatre’s recent production ducked this issue by having all the witch bits off stage and the actors addressing a spot over the heads of the audience. At the start of this Donmar production, the witches were purely voices and in the scenes where Macbeth has visions he addressed an invisible dagger and later, an invisible Banquo’s ghost. But when Macbeth returns to consult the wayward women, more than three of them take to the stage, crawling on it, and the child actor appeared in the flesh to provide Macbeth with the key prophecies of Birnam Wood and his immunity from “man born of woman”. The parade of Banquo’s royal progeny also took place on stage. So the Donmar’s solution was an intriguing mixture.
It was performed in the round on a bare square stage with audience members on three sides. The back wall was a glass screen behind which some of the actors performed, such as the witches (described throughout the play as “wayward” rather than “weird” women although wiktionary does not suggest any etymological link); the audience members were given headphones so that they could hear the sounds coming from these actors. The actors wore black untartaned kilts.
The play was more or less faithful to the text (I think there were cuts to the scene where Malcolm tests Macduff’s loyalty by pretending to be a nasty piece of work), with the notable exception of the Porter (Jatinder Singh Randhawa) who performed as if he were a stand-up comedian, interacting with the audience members to the extent of telling a knock-knock joke with audience participation and a pantoesque ‘I can’t hear you!’.
Starring was David Tennant who managed to make classic lines sound original and conversational, as if they would be spoken by any autocrat simply trying to run his kingdom and stay top dog.
As often in Macbeth, for me, the stand-out moment was Macduff (Noof Ousellam) in the repetitive disbelief of grief upon learning that his wife and children have been killed while Malcolm (beautifully played by Ros Watt) shallowly attempts to use the anger of bereavement to encourage Macduff to revenge himself upon Macbeth.
Other standout actors for me were Cal Macaninch as Banquo and Benny Young giving gravitas in two different ways both as Duncan and the Doctor. Casper Knopf was great as Macduff’s son and Fleance and Young Siward.
I am always intrigued as to how modern productions handle the supernatural elements. It is so easy to tip the play over into melodrama at this point and make it look silly in the eyes of today’s disbelieving audiences. The Grove Theatre’s recent production ducked this issue by having all the witch bits off stage and the actors addressing a spot over the heads of the audience. At the start of this Donmar production, the witches were purely voices and in the scenes where Macbeth has visions he addressed an invisible dagger and later, an invisible Banquo’s ghost. But when Macbeth returns to consult the wayward women, more than three of them take to the stage, crawling on it, and the child actor appeared in the flesh to provide Macbeth with the key prophecies of Birnam Wood and his immunity from “man born of woman”. The parade of Banquo’s royal progeny also took place on stage. So the Donmar’s solution was an intriguing mixture.
They also solved the problem of the third murderer - who is he? where does he come from? - by omitting him. Banquo's murder takes place off-stage, in sounds.
This might just have been the best Macbeth I have ever seen (although my experience has included two dreadful ones) and it left me eager to reread this great play, slowly, to understand again all the nuances.
This might just have been the best Macbeth I have ever seen (although my experience has included two dreadful ones) and it left me eager to reread this great play, slowly, to understand again all the nuances.
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