Macbeth – Review
There seems no better time to stage a Macbeth set in a post apocalyptic Britain especially when the world teeters on the threat of nuclear annihilation from a maniacal despot hell bent on global domination.
Power struggles always make good drama and, as history has shown, the bloodier the better.
Henry Proffit’s Devil You Know Theatre Company has thrown everything into this, their first production, creating a Macbeth that is visceral and powerfully compelling.
The Shakespearean tragedy opened on Thursday night at The CLF Theatre, in Peckham’s iconic Bussey Building.
This former Victorian cricket bat factory and warehouse had a performance space constructed by the Royal Court Theatre six years ago and its shabby chic is perfect for this production.
Proffit plays the murderous warlord, Macbeth, with Sadie Pepperrell offering up a chilling first lady.
The production pitches the story into a dystopian world where civilisation and technology have been obliterated.
But, actually, this is a timeless Macbeth, stripped down to the bone and taken back to its original text – slightly abridged to get it into two hours – bloody, brutal and uncompromising.
Snowflake millennials should bring their own smelling salts and sick bucket for this show isn’t for the faint-hearted.
This blood-drenched retelling is awash with the red stuff with some of its murders realistically stomach-churning.
Even its three weird sisters manage to nauseate with their ingredients for a range of potent spells and incantations.
The stage is littered with debris. I’m not entirely sure it’s set dressing for this 120-year-old building isn’t in the best of health.
But it denotes that this isn’t going to be a glamorous production.
Life’s hard, post apocalypse – although Lady Macbeth does manage to conjure up some great outfits for entertaining while the men have access to some lovely military great coats.
If only Macbeth had taken a different route home after the wars then this would have been a very different story.
Here he was, a mighty warrior who had quashed the opposition in battle and was being hailed a great hero.
But his chance encounter with three witches dictate otherwise. The production opens with a decaying corpse sitting on an office chair.
One of the witches plunges a dagger into its eye socket and a squelchy gush of blood spurts towards the front row, giving fair warning of what is to come.
The women turn his head with dreams of the throne of Scotland. How could such a thing be possible?
As soon as he tells his wife the die is cast. She sells her soul to the devil to make the dream a reality and there begins a campaign of slaughter that is relentless.
Director Paul Tomlinson has a few spells of his own to make this production zing.
Lighting designer Ben Jacobs and Jared Fortune, a charismatic Macduff and responsible for the excellent sound effects, create a dark, Stygian gloom, complete with unearthly noises, to heighten the menace and supernatural elements of the story.
And there are some well choreographed fight scenes between the cast with machetes, knives and a nasty looking ball-head war club being hurled around.
Proffit makes a convincing and conflicted thane. His frequent soliloquies to the audience draw us into his thought processes as he struggles with the witches’ prophecy. He vacillates, almost asking for guidance from the theatre-goers.
Angry and slighted at being overlooked for a title by the king, he is determined to take his revenge.
Yet there are times when he doubts his courage and has to rely on his wife to put their murderous plans into effect.
Pepperrell is excellent, delivering a ruthless and savage turn as Lady Macbeth. Here is a woman who is resolute and single-minded, determined and ambitious.
Elsewhere Guy Dennys makes for a noble and honourable Malcolm and Cameron Crighton is magnetic as Banquo the soldier, father and ghost.
The ensemble works well together with veteran actor James Pearse providing solid support as much as Jake Sullivan impressing in his professional debut.
A thrilling, dark and ferocious Macbeth, running at The CLF Theatre until November 18.
Review Rating
- Macbeth
Summary
A thrilling, visceral blood-drenched Macbeth that pitches the story into a dystopian wilderness where dark forces have replaced civilised society.
“this 120-year-old building isn’t in the best of health..”
In fact, the building suffered extensive flood damage a day or two before the production moved in. Good Luck Macbeth!
The Devil You Know production deserves all the praise it has received. It is as in-your-face as they say. The polluted space trembles with smoking evil and is littered with psychopaths fighting over Junk. Which is topical enough. And, unlike a recent prestigious production of Lear at the Barbican, the audience did not laugh at the gore. Those in the front rows cowered in terror. Jared Fortune’s McDuff disintegrated before our eyes like someone being pipe-fed Puccini deathbed arias. Sadie Pepperell never failed to completely inhabit the disordered mentality of a recently bereaved mother desperate to seek compensation for her loss in Power, whatever the cost in blood. Overall, probably the most professional Macbeth cast seen South of the Thames since the last Old Vic or NT production.
However, the ‘post-apocalyptic’ theme was not necessary. Especially in The Bussey, which hosted a post apocalyptic Macbeth in 2013 (Company of Shadows). It’s Peckham so it must be a wasteland? An abstract approach would have worked as well. And avoided the temptations of slightly overdone North-London gothic design. Strange how Camden Market boots survived the Apocalypse.
The overall tendency was to emphasise the melodrama and distract from the tragedy. This high-volume approach delivered a rattling good yarn, but at times smothered the subtleties of the play. The purpose of the Porter, for instance, was completely obliterated under gurning caricature. Instead of revealing the horror of a world without truth, and unlocking the play, he merely offered evidence that Cockney stereotypes are as indestructible as cockroaches. The sense was that the Porter’s role was largely under-exploited and an obligation to the text rather than an integral part of it. Which puts The Devil You Know Company in very elevated company. Most Porters miss the point.
JK Glynn’s job was made harder by having to double as Lennox, and having to avoid visual confusion, even to the extent of having license to break the iambic rule forced a little too rigidly on the middle class roles. A little more conversational freedom with the meter would have been welcome. We were treated to a magnificent exhibition of acting excellence which sometimes failed to allow the players to fully personalise their roles.
Macbeth is obviously ‘about’ Ambition and Power. But more fundamentally it is about Truth itself. It was written during an atmosphere of Equivication, when ‘equivocation’ had become as much a buzz-word among the Jacobean intelligentsia as ‘Fake-News’ is today. Montaigne had hit town, with his motto ‘What Do I Know’? In that sense, Macbeth has hardly ever been more relevant.
It doesn’t need to be set in a fantasy horror future to horrify us. It only needs to be set now, when we should be asking ourselves the Porter’s searing inversion of Montaigne’s question: ‘What are you?’