The RSC’s final Shakespeare offering for their season celebrating the work of the first folio is the Scottish play, Macbeth. And the RSC heavily leans into the Scottish themes, with bagpipes accompanying the play, performed by an entire Scottish cast led by Reuben Joseph in the title role.
This production is also influenced by classic horror and gothic tropes, with the beginning seeing the stage flooded by fog, before the three witches (Amber Sylvia Edwards, Eilidh Loan and Dylan Read) emerge onto the stage in a way that cannot be described and rather needs to be seen. The witches segments are performed almost as a contemporary dance piece, with Edwards, Loan and Read all perfectly in time as they chant their lines – or even speak in repertoire at times, taking one word each. This felt like a new, yet traditional, take on the witches, and one which I greatly appreciated.
Joseph is a phenomenal Macbeth. The journey that his character goes on is plain to see, and we watch as he deftly switches between villainy, vulnerability and madness. Valene Kane as Lady Macbeth provides a worthy accomplice, and her interpretation of the role sees her as more sympathetic and excitable rather than manipulative.
Macbeth learns from the witches that he is destined to be King, which drives him to murder Duncan (Therese Bradley), allowing him to take the crown for himself. Macbeth also has Banquo (Anna Russell-Martin) murdered, after he gets nervous about a second prophesy from the witches. Despite all this sounding action-packed, the first act feels somewhat bloated and slow. The acting is nothing less than stellar from all the players, and yet there is something that the production lacks.
Things move on at a quicker pace in the second act, as Macbeth turns his attention to Macduff (George Anton), murdering his family to prevent more prophecies from coming true. Macduff then rallies the troops and raises an army to attack Macbeth. The final fight between Macbeth and Macduff is long and drawn out and it is wonderful. It properly gives a sense of how long it takes someone to die. It is brutal, it is never-ending, and Joseph and Anton both perform it brilliantly.
This production is the RSC directorial debut for Wils Wilson, and it does feel like she throws an awful lot into it. It is very gimmicky. There are flying witches, rain curtains, dance sequences – all are well executed, and yet, it feels like the production could have been scaled back and still have achieved the same thing. It didn’t need these gimmicks – the actors were enough.
One of the biggest gimmicks of the night comes in the form of the porter, played by Alison Peebles. For those who are unaware, the porter provides “comic relief” after Duncan’s murder, with a satirical monologue. In this production, the monologue has been rewritten by comedian Stewart Lee for a “contemporary audience” – which means it has lots of unnecessary swearing, jokes about Boris Johnson (who stepped down over a year ago – move on!) and attempts to poke fun at the audience that falls a little flat. Worst of all, the entire speech is presented as an act in a stand-up show, with cheesy music and flashing lights that totally contrast with the rest of the horror-esque production. There is an attempt later on to mimic this with Macbeth grabbing a hand mic during the “tomorrow and tomorrow” speech – but the less said about that the better. Remove the gimmicks and I think this production would have been a lot better.
Perhaps this is a biased review – Macbeth is not my favourite Shakespeare play, I find it hard going at times. If you’re a fan of Macbeth, you’ll enjoy the majority of this – it’s very well put together, and (if I haven’t said it enough) it’s very well acted. As for me – I enjoyed most of it, I just wish it had been a little bit shorter.
Tom Morley, August 2023
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