Macbeth

First of all, thank you for inviting me to your production of Macbeth at The Drum Theatre. This was an excellent production which demonstrated some of the incredibly talented members of The Tamaritans Theatre Company. Upon walking into the theatre it was nice to see some familiar faces offering their support on the door selling programmes. It was nice to see that though they were not in this production, they were still there to give their support and commitment to the company.

The set for this production was very minimalistic. In many ways, the best way to perform Shakespeare’s works, and how I have seen many professional companies perform. This allowed the performances from the cast to really shine. That said, there was plenty of set to give clear indication of location throughout the performance. The space became somewhere in which the action and the cast could move and explore rather than being constrained by large pieces of set.

Director, Richard Haighton, opted for a more modern choice of costume which was suitable. After all, Shakespeare was written to be performed in clothing of the period. The more modern costume made the status and roles clear to all the audience regardless of their knowledge of the production. How they managed to keep their costumes so clean, especially the whites, with the sheer amount of fake blood used in this production is a mystery! There must have been a busy wardrobe team frantically washing the costumes each day!

Personally I felt that act one dragged a little. There was a lot of complete blackouts which were accompanied by music to help with the transition from one scene to the next but this had an impact on the pace and added a lot of time. It wasn’t entirely necessary to have extended blackouts as the set didn’t particularly need to be changed. I am quite a fan of seeing the “magic” in the scene changes in a straight play and prefer to use a blackout sparingly; instead using the cast on stage to show the shift in time and location through their movement on stage. This is what tended to happen more in act two and as a result the pace was much better here. The choices in music were suitable and unique and absolutely matched the themes of the play. 

The dialogue and language used throughout Shakespeare’s plays is often a tricky thing for a performer to grasp though this cast handled it excellently and with seeming ease. I am sure no doubt that this was down to a lot of hard work throughout the rehearsals. Macbeth was an incredibly strong performer and was captivating. His delivery of dialogue was strong and believable and his characterisation was spot on allowing the audience to be drawn into his decline toward madness. Lady Macbeth was also notable and the delivery of her iconic “will these hands ever be clean” was excellent. This pairing was superb and showed fantastic chemistry.

The role of Seyton was expanded in this production and this was a great choice by the director as she was a fantastically strong performer. She really drew the audience in and created a real sense of intrigue. Particularly in the opening as she arrived from the back of the auditorium, down the stairs and then took her place on the balcony to create so “Foley sounds”. This was a nice touch and very traditional in style though I feel more could have been made of this throughout the production. There were two young performers playing the Macduff children and they were both brilliant performers. Fleance however was fantastic. This is one young performer to certainly watch out for in future! I could go on mentioning individual performances but the truth is that I could end up naming the entire cast list as there were so many notable performances. The Macduff family moment was beautifully directed and executed and gave a genuine heartfelt performance that was recognisable and allowed the audience to connect personally.

The Drum theatre is a unique space and has many options when it comes to entrances to the stage. This plethora of entrance were used with great effect and almost allowed for each family or group to have their own dedicated entrance which gave a sense of continuity to the production. The Porter is the bridge between the stage and the audience and this was delivered excellently as he walked through the audience and onto the stage as he delivered his key speech.

Congratulations on a great show.

Kind regards

Ryan Procter

   District 3 Representative

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