Skip to main content

Macbeth @ Chichester Festival Theatre

Macbeth has ever been one of Shakespeare’s plays to split opinion. The fact it has a great plot and some juicy monologues leads some to love it, while others will point out that the central character is disjointed and, for a relatively simple plot, there seem to be a lot of filler scenes.

The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between. The story is a good one, but not particularly well told, the Weird Sisters still feel somewhat unnecessary and there is a scene between Malcolm and Macduff that seems to take up about half the run time of the play.

Thankfully though, if you get the central parts right then the rest of the play can hang off them. Chichester Festival Theatre have a rich history of Shakespeare and more often than not they hit the jackpot with their casting. John Simm is excellent as Macbeth, swaggering hero and yet neurotic he slips through the many moods of the character with ease and masterfully shapes his lines into dismissive asides. As we reach the closing scenes and he sits nonchalantly in his throne you feel the weight of expectation on his shoulders and he seems, visibly, to sink into the stone.

He’s equalled and perhaps even surpassed by Dervla Kirwan’s Lady Macbeth, not for her the Machiavellian schemer, this is a wife devoted to her husband and family. When presented with Macbeths prophesied achievements she sees it as her duty to make them reality and her love for her husband and son is palpable.

Sadly for all their excellence and the manner in which both bring the dialogue to life it feels false in the moths of much of the rest of the cast. There’s an odd tendency to declaim as if to ensure they can be heard in the street, matched with huge broad gestures that distract, rather than enhance. At odd moments (most notably Harry Peacock’s Porter) where this works, but many others where it doesn’t and in one scene the actors arms swing about so wildly I began to wonder if they were about to take off from the stage.

Paul Miller’s direction seems somewhat vague, he makes some use of the space, with characters popping up among the audience in later scenes, but too often the urge to do something, anything, detracts from what would be so much better left alone. Nowhere is this more evident than in the act V soliloquy. As Simm starts to speak you can hear a pin drop but for some reason the speech is amplified and given an echo effect when all that is needed is to hear such a good actor deliver one of the best loved pieces in Shakespeare’s plays.

Come then for those masterful central performances, they’re more than worth the price of admission even if so much of the rest is “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!”

 

At Chichester until October 26. Head to https://www.cft.org.uk/whats-on/event/macbeth for more info.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

"I'm just focused on getting that third trophy and enjoying the rest of my time with the guys here." David Goodwin on preparing for Playoff Finals Weekend

photo courtesy of William Cherry, Press Eye It’s EIHL playoff final weekend! After eight months of toil, four teams will face off for the chance to lift the last silverware of the season. First up Belfast Giants take on Cardiff Devils so I caught up with David Goodwin to see how the team are feeling after a battle against Dundee Stars and how ready they are for the games ahead. It was, I suggest, an intense weekend for the team. “Yeah, I mean it was. It always is. The quarterfinals… you never know what you're going to get.” Goodwin replies. “On one hand, you have us, the Giants, who are coming off a league title win, so we're on a high. But then you got Dundee, who don't want to go away quietly. They were fighting and scratching and clawing for every inch and it lead to two feisty games. “I give Dundee a lot of credit. They threw everything they had at us. But ultimately, I think our consistent play, maybe some of our higher skill was able to shine through and get the...

"If it was easy everybody would do it. That’s the best part about this, it’s hard!" Jeff Baum on Belfast Giants record-setting seventh league title

  Last weekend the Belfast Giants etched their names, once again, in the EIHL history books with a record-setting seventh league title. A dramatic win for the men in teal, away in Nottingham in the final minutes of the season, was a fitting end to a spectacular season and though there are still play off games to contend with, the club have made sure to celebrate their success. We caught up with Jeff Baum to see just how much fun was had and to hear about how he keeps focused for the games still to come. “It’s a very unique situation to win a trophy and still have - hopefully - four more games to keep playing. It’s a great honour to have finished out the league season the way we wanted to and to be able to celebrate that together…. That sigh of relief that we’ve been able to accomplish a goal we set ourselves at the beginning of the season. That’s two goals checked off, from the three we set ourselves at the beginning of every season. Now it’s time to reset our mindset, get back ...

"Certain games you look to, maybe against like the likes of Cardiff or Sheffield or Nottingham" - Josh Roach looks to the season ahead for the Belfast Giants

With player announcements in full flow, CHL fixtures next month and the Elite League season hot on its heels what better time to get back to chatting with players on what they are up to and their thoughts on the season ahead. Fresh off announcing his return to the  Belfast Giants we caught up with Josh Roach . “We're starting to get close to that pre-pre-season time, so I’m enjoying a little bit more relaxing before we get back into it… it won't be long.” Roach tells us, before sharing how he has spent his summer. “I was home for a quick visit right at the end of the season and then we went on a little holiday, but other than that I've just been on the island. It's kind of nice to have some downtime in Belfast and explore around here a bit more.” “You don't really get the opportunity many times to stay for summer in the place you play, so you get comfortable. This is year five for me, so it is really is like a second home and honestly, it feels more weird t...