NT on tour: Macbeth
Maisie Barker
Monday, October 1, 2018
A confused design-concept renders this production disappointing
Brinkhoff-Moegenburg
How do you reinvent the wheel? This is a problem that exists for any company that seeks to rejuvenate Shakespeare's most beloved and most often performed plays – Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Love's Labour Lost and so on.
Sometimes it works, as with 2014's Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse, and sometimes it doesn't, such as this touring production of Macbeth, which I saw at the Lowry Theatre in Manchester.
It is my belief that Shakespeare works best when the language is allowed to speak for itself. When the wordplay and subtlety is allowed to take centre stage, with set design and costume highlighting the ingenuity. This production takes the opposite approach, with confusing and often disjointed staging.
The start was promising, with a vast set – part swamp, part shady cobbled Dickensian street. Everything was bathed in dappled green light which gave an unearthly and suitable spooky air to the show. But this is quickly lost with too-frequent set movements that distract from the gripping tension one would expect, and I couldn't help but compare it to the bold and lush setting of the Barbican's 2015 Hamlet.
The costumes are a strange choice too. Reminiscent of a 1990s paramilitary troupe, with elements borrowed from rave culture, army fatigues and 1970s Studio 54, but none of it works. Rather than making a point about the timelessness of Macbeth's themes it betrays a lack of focus.
The performances are adequate with particular note from Rachel Sanders (as a gender-swapped Ross) and Patrick Robinson as a jovial Banquo. While the lead roles are ably performed by Michael Nardone and Kirsty Besterman, nothing stands out as it should: Lady Macbeth's manipulation and subsequent downfall are overshadowed by the insistence on changing sets every few moments.
Perhaps the biggest grievance is that this is a National Theatre production. For a smaller theatre company it would be a daring staging but it falls far short of the NT's other Shakespearean adaptations.
I really wanted to like this show but everything felt like too much or too little. When your sets are vast you need your actors to be visible, not hidden in the shadows, and your costume designs to make sense within the confines of the staging. I would be hesitant to take a school group to this as the design lacks coherency and flies in the face of what they're being taught.