There are moments near the end of this aspiring fringe production, when Macbeth is besieged in Dunsinane and Birnam Wood is approaching, that Jack Shepherd's performance in the title role leaps above the minimum voltage level required to convey the corrupted majesty of Macbeth facing his fate. Even in amateur performance this wonderfully wrought play cannot fail to grip, so although the cast is not at its best in this production – apart from Jack Shepherd himself, a strong Clarence Smith as Macduff, and an occasionally unconvincing but nevertheless professional Amanda Boxer as Lady Macbeth – they still managed to offer an absorbing evening of theatre. 
     The patchy cast performance was in part a function of the direction. Most of the cast spoke their lines too slowly, giving a mournful and depressed air to interchanges; they did it because they were trying to ensure appropriate articulation, not always easy for less practised mouths trying to shape Shakespeare's words. The low-key and eventually tedious performance of the witches in cabal was a good example of this. The directors should have demanded quick clear utterance – a speaking of the lines trippingly – and they might well have been alerted to the problem by the abysmal performance of Matthew Coombes as Malcolm, who was utterly incomprehensible, and not just because of his accent. The excellent diction of Clarence Smith, Jack Shepherd, Amanda Boxer and Philip Anthony, all of whom know as if by instinct how to speak Shakespeare, offer an object lesson to any player. 
     In other respects the direction worked well, by keeping scenes flowing into one another and thereby respecting the narrative tightness of the play. The play itself is a masterpiece of compression, beautifully assimilating large uneven slices of time and space, and unravelling with ease a complex political and psychological story. This is why it transcends deficiencies of production; very quickly one forgets the clumsiness of actors and the garbling of lines – if and when they occur – in the drama's terrible sweep. Moreover, the language of the play is transcendent; even a robot squawking "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" would fix the attention until the last syllable had faded from hearing. 
     On the night this reviewer attended, Jack Shepherd took time to warm into his role, and so did Amanda Boxer as his lady. He was less good as the amazed and ambiguously-ambitious thane than as the haunted and guilt-ridden king; but as the latter he came into his own. Amanda Boxer has a deep and intelligent understanding of Lady Macbeth, and one can see how she would, in the right circumstances, do the part great justice. 
     If a "Most Promising" award was being given for someone in this cast, it would indubitably go to Clarence Smith, an actor of vigorous talent who inhabits his part with commitment and completeness. He is a man to watch.
AC Grayling