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Author
William Shakespeare
Director
John Caird
Macbeth
Simon Russell
Beale
Lady Macbeth
Emma Fielding
Malcolm
Tom Burke
Macduff
Paul Higgins
Witch
Hilary Sesta
Witch
Jane Thorne
Witch
Janet Whiteside
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RSC
at the Albery Theatre
16 February 2005 |
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It's
very instructive to see two
productions of a play in quick
succession. Some weeks before
I had seen the outstanding
production of Macbeth
at the Almeida with Simon
Russell Beale in the title
role. Hot on its heels comes
a new RSC production with
Greg Hicks as the usurping
Scottish king.
Almost everything that was
arresting and innovative in
the Almeida production was
conventional and hammy in
the RSC. The witches here
were like the Greek fates
with their knotted rope, but
they behaved, traditionally,
like crones croaking over
their hubbling and bubbling,
and their predictions. Louis
Hillyer's Banquo was so mannered
and his diction so carefully
pronounced that many adjectives
became their comparatives:
not a convincing begetter
of kings.
The witches emphasised 'brave'
Macbeth, but it was not easy
to perceive in what Greg Hick's
bravery could reside. He too,
over played the role so much
and enunciated so 'actorially'
that you could hardly wait
five acts for him to be killed
off, nor could one believe
that so swashbuckling an athlete,
who seemed to have learnt
his troubled conscience from
a book, could really have
undertaken all those misdeeds.
Weakest of all was his famous
speech "Tomorrow and
tomorrow and tomorrow",
which Hicks proclaimed like
an old-fashioned aria from
the front of the stage with
little idea of how it could
be integrated into the play.
How much more effective was
Simon Russell Beale's quiet
application of his thoughts
to his dead wife. Overplaying
the melodrama of Macbeth also
persuaded the audience to
laugh when he sees the ghost
of Banquo. Banquo is the representation
of his conscience, which possesses
him. Lessing in his Dramatic
Notes compared Voltaire's
use of the supernatural in
his Semiramis with Shakespeare's
in various plays including
Macbeth. He praised Shakespeare
for managing the cross the
divide between pantomime phantoms
and personifications of psychological
forces. Unfortunately the
night I saw Macbeth Greg Hicks
made Shakespeare into Voltaire
and the audience, probably
unaware, laughed.
Lady Macbeth, played by Sian
Thomas, fitted well into the
production and conveyed suitable
menace when need be, though
again her sleep-walking scene
with its attempted expurgation
seemed less revealing than
the words suggest. The words
were spoken in too mannered
and angular a manner, as though
drawing attention to their
A-level importance.
The production played without
interval, though the pace
of the lines was quite slow,
so the two hours ten minutes
crept by. Live music was used,
but it was too nondescript
to make an impression on the
the atmosphere of the play.
This was a worthy and respectable
production that resembled
every other worthy and respectable
production one might have
seen. It was a pity for it
there had been one that was
so much more compelling and
intelligent in town just before.
However, the programme was
well worth its £3.50p.
Roderick Swanston |
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