Macbeth – The Duke’s Theatre Company at Birmingham Botanical Gardens Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by Janine Rumble
I was very pleased to be asked to review The Duke’s Theatre Company’s production of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy, Macbeth, not just because it is Shakespeare, but also because it was held on the main lawn at the beautiful Birmingham Botanical Gardens and there is something quite magical about watching a play outside in the open air. My friend, who accompanied me, asked “What can you write about Macbeth that has not been written a hundred times before?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, but I having watched it, there is so much to say about this brilliant production. The tragic tale of Macbeth was told in such a way that we, the audience, were taken on an emotional journey of highs and lows, loving and loathing, this production really pulled you in, largely because of the company of actors, which consisted of just seven actors, who were all superb and believable as the different characters they portrayed. The way they portrayed their characters made us love some characters, loathe some characters and even hate others, the acting was just so deep and so believable, I easily got carried away into the story quite liking Lady Macbeth, played by the brilliant Marilyn Nnadebe, in the beginning, to hating her by the end. The way she portrayed the changes in Lady MacBeth’s character was amazing. Finnbar Hayman who played Macbeth was just sublime. He was so utterly believable as the tragic Macbeth. How he changed as he descended into madness and violence was amazing. How he could switch from being driven mad at the sight of the witchy apparitions to merrily talking to his men in seconds was brilliant. The intensity and passion with which he acted was something to behold. He truly believes in this character and portrays him with every fibre in his being. Alasdair James McLaughlin portrayal of Macduff nearly had me in tears as he portrayed the pain and the heartbreak of the man finding about his tragic loss, his reaction was almost primal and I easily forgot I was watching a play.
All the actors are very talented and portrayed between four and five characters each, portraying them in such a way that you knew they were a different character from the one they had played minutes before. Each character took on their own persona, their own way of standing, moving and behaving and all were believable and that is down the to the strength and the talent of each of the actors including Joseph Black, who was great as Banquo, I especially loved his haunting portrayal of Banquo’s ghost tormenting Macbeth. James Lavender, who mainly portrayed Duncan, William Marr, who mainly portrayed Malcolm and Jenni Walker.
The costumes helped to make the characters and what was happening all the more believable. They were very simple colours, grey, black, red, representing the colour and the actions of the play. They wore black military wear, combat boots, cloaks. Royalty wore a simple gold band around their heads. The women, simple black dressed. The witches were more gruesome and slightly terrifying in their black cloaks and rags, concealing their grotesque red bodies, which are not revealed to the end. The costumes were simple and effective at the same time and also very practical for the energetic moving around the stage that the actors did. I especially liked the ingenious use of red material to represent blood and wounds during the production, simple and effective. The stage was also very simple and effective.
Being a travelling theatre company, whereby it is the actors that put up and take down the stage every performance, so according to the interview with the set and costume designer Jessica Curtis, they ‘had to create a stage that can be built by the actors in a couple of hours, can withstand all weathers, will fit into a van, sit alongside the most beautiful landscape and architecture in the country and helps to tell one of Shakespeare’s most exhilarating and exciting stories’ and it certainly does that. It is not your typical stage, there is not curtain, there is not backdrop (other than the beautiful botanical gardens) no wings, just a series of black cubes of differing heights, joined together and decorated in Celtic designs carved into the wood. More interestingly were the numerous red and orange poles slotted around the back and sides of the stage which were used to great effect to represent trees, walls, castles etc. As I have said before, so simple, and yet, so affective. Each scene, you knew where the action was taking place, whether it be a battlefield, a castle, the ramparts, a room, all were believable because of the way the actors used and portrayed those spaces.
Lighting was simple, two sets of lights pointing towards the stage at both ends of the stage. Lighting behind the stage and lighting and a smoke machine within which was used well to represent the fog and also the cauldron around which the three witches gathered. Again, simple and effective. Also, during the scenes with the witches, we found the sounds to be brilliant, causing the actors voice to be replicated three times at different levels of sound, whilst also sounding like it was bouncing around and echoing from different parts of the stage. It made for a very spooky atmosphere. The natural lighting of the sun going down, the dusk and the dark of night also added to the atmosphere of the play. It was as if Mother Nature had consulted with them to bring the dusk and the dark in time with the descent of Macbeth, watching in the dark added an extra element to the play that just cannot be replicated inside a theatre building. It was very atmospheric.
As I said before, there is something special about watching theatre out in the open air, amongst other theatre goers and Shakespeare fans, sitting in your own little camping chair or on a blanket with a picnic, it makes for a very different theatre experience. The cast and crew were on hand once the doors opened to help you find a spot to sit, to enable all to be able to see the stage. Everyone was very approachable and helpful. We had a space to the left of the stage and could see most of the stage, as we brought low, but very comfortable chairs with us. I highly recommend that people take blankets or warm clothing with them, as when the sun goes down, it does get a little cold. Luckily for us, it did not rain as performances carry on whatever the weather. I think watching Macbeth in the rain, would add another interesting element to the play.
The souvenir brochure, priced quite reasonably at £4.50, is of brilliant quality and contains information about the theatre company, the production and previous productions and information about some of the incredible places and spaces the production has been performed. After reading it, it would make a very good addition to your coffee table aesthetics.
If you have never seen a Shakespeare play, Macbeth or experienced the thrill of watching a production outside, then I highly recommend going to see this. The Duke’s Theatre Company is not a company I had heard of before, but I will be keeping an eye out for their future productions as this production of Macbeth directed by Robert Shaw Cameron and produced by Bobby Delaney was amazing.
I give this production 5/5 for the superb acting and storytelling. It was certainly a thrill to watch.
Rating: 5/5
All details about future performances can be found on their website www.thedukestheatrecompany.co.uk Tickets are priced from £21 and open air performances are taking place around the country until 14th September.