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Macbeth
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London
2018 has crammed in three star-studded Macbeths, with varying levels of success. Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff couldn’t rescue Rufus Norris’ post-apocalyptic production at the National from universal damnation and the RSC’s high concept staging – currently on at the Barbican – left many cold.
But Robert Hastie’s interpretation outstrips them both by simply trusting in his actors and the text.
A wise move when you have a text as poetic as Macbeth, a cast brimming with talent and the most beautiful theatre in the country at your disposal. Hastie fuses the majestic, candle-lit surroundings with “the Scottish play” to make it feel right at home in its first staging at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
Darkness permeates the evening, with many scenes lit by just a single candle and the witches — a breathy vocal trio on the balcony — conjure tension with aid of shrill singing bowls. The rumbling outside the exterior walls creates an eerie, bunker-like atmosphere inside the auditorium as Paul Ready’s Macbeth slides towards his fate.
Initially, Ready and his real-life wife Michelle Terry bring a violent intensity to the murderous matrimonial partnership at the heart of the play. But as their actions catch up with them, they diverge emotionally.
Ready, shedding his timidity, seems almost at ease with his downfall while Terry shrinks into the embodiment of a drowned rat as she scrubs wearily at her clenched palms.
This is typical of the restrained style running throughout, as revelations of heinous murders are greeted with minimal gestures or even grunts — some of which feel overly underplayed. When Macduff’s (Anna-Maria Nabirye) family are wiped out he/she barely allows her lip to quiver.
Nabirye, though, is one of the standout performers, so much so that she never brings the sole cross-gender casting into questions.
In a formidable cast, particular credit must go to Kit Young as a poised Malcolm and Joseph Marcell, who brings light and shade to the Porter and Duncan alike.
As Josie Rourke’s magnificent Measure for Measure has just shown, there is certainly room for highly conceptual takes on Shakespeare. But here Hastie proves that less is often more where the Bard is concerned.
Runs until February 2, box office: shakespearesglobe.com.
