Macbeth, Royal Exchange

I went to see the Royal Exchange production of Macbeth on 30/03/09. Ack, Macbeth!

The problem, really, is that any production of Macbeth has SO much to live up to. It is undoubtedly one of the greatest Shakespeare plays, and I guess that makes it one of the GREATEST PLAYS IN THE WORLD.. EVER!!!

It certainly blew the door off the bunker of my teenage world the first time I read it. A play of remarkable depths, of such darkness and energy. A story of untamed ambition and desires, of rape, greed, lust, murder; of the self-sought degradation of the human soul for the sake of power over others. But we know about the greatness of Macbeth!

This production was uneven. Some aspects were really good, such as the three weird sisters actually being the victims of brutal and visceral war crimes right at the beginning of the play and coming back to haunt the characters and us throughout. They appear in the guise of contemporary but violated young girls. They dance to Girls Aloud, Pink and Katy Perry for coins! I love Katy Perry!
In another scene Macduff's little son is brutally drowned in a kitchen sink whilst the Ting Tings blurts out of the radio. All incidents are filmed, and the footage of the murder of the son and mother is communicated to Macduff via video message to a mobile phone.

And we arrive at a problem. The drastic 'new life' the director seeks to inject into the play doesn't really seem of a psychologically deep enough consideration. I'm not a conservative about these things – it may be valid to say the reason we are still going to Macbeth is because it stands up as it is after all this time, we don't need a director saying bluntly 'this is like Kosovo!!! and they're filming it, it's like NOW!!!', but if done well I don't mind interventions. And as I say some were very promising in this production. Ultimately though it ends with Malcolm rehearsing his inauguration speech.. as he dresses and looks just like Barak Obama. GET IT? the director is shouting at us, 'DID YOU GET THAT BIT?!' ...yeah, it's like that thing Shakespeare wrote isn't it, you know.. Macbeth?

Power corrupts, desire for power makes you mad. Macbeth is one of the deepest and greatest plays there's ever been.. I just wish this production didn't resort to a director POINTING AT THINGS.

The final note, whilst the three little girl/weird sister were pretty awesome, the character of Lady Macbeth was diminished into a role which was neither here nor there, which is itself a damning and major failure of this production.