MACBETH, HAROLD PINTER THEATRE, LONDON
★★★★
Shakespeare’s Scottish play is transformed into a mesmerising ‘radio play’ by director Max Webster in Donmar Warehouse’s sell-out production, which proves an ingenious audible feast with cinematic values and a brooding David Tennant as Macbeth at its heart.
To experience the full immersive nature of Webster’s Macbeth, headphones are required in order to hear the dialogue as the Bard’s tragedy unfolds on stage. Spoken lines are delivered naturally over an immersive 3D soundscape – it’s screen delivery for the live theatre. Take the headphones off and you will hear nothing at all.
Opening with the eerie premonitions of the Weyward Sisters echoing through your headset, Gareth Fry’s soul design is immediately effective and sets the scene for what is to come. As an experience, it’s akin to eavesdropping on private conversations with every whisper, pause and breath dripped into the collective consciousness. Accompanied by composer and musical director Alasdair Macrae’s beautifully ethereal score, the effect is positively haunting.
Such a lush soundscape offers the ideal backdrop against which Tennant’s Macbeth is quickly elevated through the ranks, from Thane of Glamis, to that of Cawdor and ultimately King. It’s a tale of politics and power that remains as pertinent today as ever. Tennant’s performance throughout is intense, insidious and controlled, occasionally displaying an almost demonic drive. As he speaks his thoughts aloud, sharing confidences and bellowing in his madness, he is beguiling and quite mesmeric.
Tennant’s portrayal is further enhanced by Bruno Poet’s spectacular lighting design which animates the wisps of white smoke that drift across the darkened stage, transforming them into a mysterious, ever-shifting haar through which Macbeth slips stealthily with duplicitous bonhomie and at other time with unbridled rage. Poet’s lighting excels again as the immortal lines, ‘Double, double toil and trouble…’ are uttered and a wash of red envelops the stage, drenching an otherwise colourless world with sinister bloody hues.
As Macbeth’s love, Cush Jumbo is a cool and efficient Lady Macbeth. She is unexpectedly warm in nature, although the energy of her performance shifts and wains towards the end of the piece. Strong supporting performances also come from Cal MacAninch, who serves as a commanding Banquo and Noof Ousellam, a stoic and passionate MacDuff. The latter is also impressive in an exhilarating clash of swords with Tennant as the production builds to its climax. Moyo Akande is also particularly striking and watchable as the war-like, Ross.
With chat of Ticketmaster selling tickets at £800 a pop to this production on the resale market, The Porter, played as lively Glasgow jester-ned by Jatinder Singh Randhawa, breaks not just the fourth wall but also brings a rift in time to the production. It’s an unexpectedly self-referential comic interlude played directly to the audience that, while entertaining, feels out of sync with the rest of the evening and breaks the spell somewhat.
Elsewhere, casting director Anna Cooper’s choices are occasionally problematic with ill-defined characters presented on stage lacking the gravitas and rhythm of delivery required, robbing Shakespeare’s prose and verse of its resonance and power. A shame, really
However, spellbinding overall, this 110 minute Macbeth, played straight through without an interval, never outstays its welcome and offers an imaginative and novel alternative to the norm that is well worth seeing. That’s if you can get a ticket, or indeed afford the price when you do.
Macbeth runs until 14 December. Tickets here.
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