Macbeth
The English Touring Theatre
Connaught Studio Theatre, Worthing.
Tuesday 5 March – Friday 8 March 2024
Director: Richard Twyman
The Connaught Theatre and Studio are well known and respected as cinemas in Worthing and far beyond, not only for their diversity of film offerings, but importantly for their state of the art 4K projection and massive surround sound, all housed in one of the oldest buildings in the UK. However, their diversity stretches much further. Spinning away from the Council just before Covid hit (unfortunate timing), they became a charitable trust, tirelessly championing and supporting major causes, as well as providing inspirational educational and entertainment opportunities. It is no secret that their live theatre programme is a highly prestigious one, with top level touring companies regularly featuring there.
The English Touring Theatre (ETT) is up there amongst the most outstanding in a long line of exciting and innovative companies to come to the Connaught. Their production of ‘Macbeth’ has ‘innovation’ stamped all over it, and delivers it in bucket loads, so be prepared. You should also be prepared by having read up or refreshed yourself on Shakespeare’s Macbeth – if you’re not familiar with it or read it at school aeons ago – to understand how the original works, and indeed how it might relate to us in the 21st century. But, if you think this is going to be another homogeneous medieval play about blood, guts and warring factions in Scotland, then yes, much of that stuff is there of course. But definitely not the medieval bit.
I admit to being a longtime fan of Shakespeare, lucky enough to have seen many of his plays, both traditional and modern. I lived for many years in and around Stratford-upon-Avon, so it would have been rude not to. However, ETT’s production is something else. Highly ambitious – after all that’s what ETT’s known for – and set not in a cold draughty old castle, and dark woods, but in what appears to be an art deco style dining room in the modern age. And there it stayed, apart from towards the end when half a gnarled old tree descended half way down to the floor – representing, I think, Birnam Wood. The Weird Sisters (the witches) didn’t actually make an appearance per se, but were represented by video projection on the set (clever Mr Will Duke, Projection Designer).
Director Richard Twyman slams everything into this new production (first performed 2023). It doesn’t fail to shock, amaze and astound you, and is aptly described as ‘visceral’. Well I’m yet to see a production of Macbeth that tries to shy away from being visceral. Opening with Lady Macbeth (competently played with the usual deviousness and obsessive power craziness by Laura Elsworthy) is seen restlessly wafting around her dining room, listening to a radio broadcast about the current state of Scotland (I think, because it was pretty indistinct and sort of tapered off into a whisper). She was wearing a fetching satin evening dress, and obviously waiting for her husband to return from war. When Macbeth (Mike Noble) finally entered through the French doors, shortly followed by all the usual culprits in the play, they were all wearing combat trousers, sweat pants, and identical padded anoraks, which made them look as if they’d just descended Everest. When they lined up at the front of the stage and proceeded simultaneously to take jackets off, then boots, I really thought we were in for a bit of ‘The Full Monty’. Goodness.
The rest of the first half of the play I found quite tricky, partly because the majority of male actors had various northern accents, not sure if any of them were Scottish, and partly because names were not really obviously referred to, I wasn’t at all sure who was who. Plus the sequence and plot had been heavily manipulated. (At one point, both Macbeth and his Lady both took on the witches’ famous lines ‘Hubble, bubble….’ etc themselves.) The jumble of characters were being entertained at a dinner party by the Macbeths, when plots were hatched. There was interesting use of various doors – in the dining room, kitchen and to the garden – which were put to good effect for ghostly appearances and the times when blood-stained husband and wife were staggering through. And I really liked the sound and musical effects (created by Tingying Dong, who has an amazingly impressive CV). Her use of pulsating, eerie reverberations, plus sinister knocking, really worked. Oh, and I loved the bagpipe playing!
However, what I found rather slightly bizarre was Ross’s character (admirably played by Leo Wan) going off piste and falling drunkenly about the stage as if he were in a comedy act, and abandoning any Shakespearian lingo in favour of vocalising a search for booze in the ‘fridge, before stumbling down to the front row and questioning some poor woman about her profession. Not sure what that was about. Later Macbeth did something similar, suddenly popping down to the auditorium and dragging two unsuspecting people up on stage to sit down at the dinner table. Awks. Somewhat reminiscent of a Derren Brown show. Sorry, I’m unclear what the artistic intention was there.
The first act ended with the Macbeths having a bit of a smoochy dance around the stage to that old favourite by Hogey Carmichael ‘Two Sleepy People’. If they hadn’t just committed a horrible murder – more was to come – you’d think you were witnessing a scene from a Noel Coward play.
The second act really went off with much more of a blast, shorter than the first, which set all the horror up, it packed a massive punch and, to my mind, really pulled the plot together in a thrilling fashion. Macbeth, initially reticent about committing murder, displayed more and more bloodlust in his thirst for power, whereas poor old Lady M, initially the ‘egger on’ with her driving, ruthless obsession for raising her husband’s status to the highest limit, descended into remorse and insanity. The play culminates in what is easily the most visually dramatic scene in this play, where Macbeth and MacDuff engage in a savage fight (brilliantly choreographed by the international Fight Director, Kevin McCurdy). Absolutely riveting. I think we all know what happened next…
Macbeth is a play which gives us a microcosm of the human condition in every aspect: the characteristics and key events of human life – birth, emotion, aspiration, morality and ultimately, death. It is the shortest and bloodiest of Shakespeare’s tragedies – Hamlet is almost twice as long! – and is a favourite on GCSE syllabi. Love and betrayal lead to death and destruction, and along the way we are hit square in the face with every facet of every emotion: lust, power, fury, obsessive jealousy, fear and horror, to name but a few.
‘A struggling nation, tearing itself apart’
Many would say that these (pretty much true) events from the 11th century, are mirrored in our world today, and are asking ‘What have we learned?’ A sobering thought, indeed.
The English Touring Company’s production, I have to say, being somewhat of a purist, didn’t quite do it for me, I didn’t experience quite as much disgust and horror at the Macbeths’ heinous crimes as I was craving, and those couple of distractions did not a lot to endear it to me, otherwise I would have awarded 5 stars for its production values alone. However, having said that, ETT never fails to go the extra 10 miles or so to deliver to its audiences amazingly audacious and ambitious projects, using as much artistic licence as they can muster. Be prepared to work with a lot of symbolism, new interpretation, and make leaps across the chasms of imagination. I’m always up for that.
2 hours 45 minutes including interval.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Touring the UK and internationally
Reviewer: Gill Ranson