Today directors are eager to free Shakespeare from the context of long-ago periods and productions that strive for historical accuracy. There is certainly nothing wrong with this. Even the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, Shakespeare’s venerable acting company, performed on stage in the contemporary Elizabethan garb of doublet and hose.
But because Macbeth focuses on the psychology of evil and unbridled ambition in a story that resonates so strongly with modern playgoers, it can be dangerous when directors take huge risks with its landscape. In the show’s first half, Goold takes some interesting license with Shakespeare’s script. But he infuses the play too early with the dread of apocalyptic horror that should come upon us more gradually, as Macbeth gets carried away by his “vaulting ambition.”
In the show’s second half, this production’s tricks, quirks, and made-up musical interludes detract from the familiar elegance of Shakespeare’s character study. The first act ends as Macbeth spies Banquo’s ghost at a dinner party. After the intermission the scene is repeated with silences inserted where dialogue had been. This appears novel, but you’re left wondering why such a powerful scene needs to be interrupted by a bathroom break. Moreover, Goold’s excessively vulgar interpretation of a deranged Porter strays off the mark of Shakespeare’s page, and takes unnecessary liberties with the role.
By the time Lady Macbeth does herself in and Macbeth faces certain doom in this show, and by the time Stewart’s Macbeth tells us that life is “a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing,” Shakespeare’s profound message is blunted by Goold’s nonstop celluloidal imagery of gloom and doom.
Despite the production’s uneven quality, key roles in this ensemble were performed well by a highly talented cast – Martin Turner’s Banquo and Byron Jenning’s Duncan are especially adept. In the role of Macduff, Michael Feast is excellent. Scott Handy (Malcolm) and Ben Carpenter (Donalbain) nicely captured the predicament that Duncan’s sons find themselves in after their father is murdered under Macbeth’s roof.
The Chichester Festival Theatre Production of Macbeth is scheduled to run at the Lyceum Theatre through May 24.
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