There is very little that can be said about the writing of Shakespeare that has not already been said however the shortest of his tragedies has a very linear heart of the matter feel to it which was matched by Gaslamp’s approach. Directed with some skill in the context of this particular venue, it was augmented by the technical support in lighting and enhanced beautifully by the live music. It was, of course, given a lot of atmosphere by the fact that it was in a former church with all those gothic overtones.
Review
As a relatively young company this was a bold undertaking and one which I think they should be given a great deal of credit for. I thought that the staging of it as well as that live music suggested that they could have been a little bolder, particularly in terms of costume. I felt it was a nod to convention with one foot attempting to get out of that convention into something more radical: I would have preferred something more radical – and perhaps a better metaphor for describing it.
I liked the collective approach and especially the way in which a lot of the scenes were imagined, a lot of performance close by us. Having it within the Cottier Theatre in a thrust stage worked particularly well, though at times when an actor had his back to the top end of the theatre the acoustics ironically didn’t help. Given that this is a former church you would have thought that acoustics were particularly supportive but, on this occasion, sometimes the projection wasn’t quite as effective as it could have been.
Having been given clear direction by Russ Russell and Rebecca Russell, a number of really good performances flowed from the ensemble cast – notably – Courtney Bassett as Macduff, Jamie Cowan as Duncan, Caden Scott as Seyton and the doubling Lennox/Lady Macduff – Naomi Delvin and Malcolm/Fleance – Calum Hunter. In particular I enjoyed the Porter Scene which often can be left out for reasons I fail to understand. The lament for the witches played by Nefeli Stoikopoulou, Katarina Dulude and Eva Shaw, at the beginning was highly effective creating a really discordant tone which acted as an effective opening to the play. I also enjoyed Devin McWhirter as Ross whose acting offline enhanced and helped his fellow actors. For some, however, there were some acting offline was a little less effective mainly because you don’t have to go through your A to Z of expressions when you don’t have anything to do but to stand; oftentimes just standing is the breadth of expression that we require.
At times pace could be pushed a lot more. Oftentimes I think that this was not done because of the anguish and anxiety that was being portrayed where a more subtle and more confident, whispered approach could have been taken with particularly those protagonists we were not to love and adore; they could have been given the opportunity to sit back and be devilish rather than just be fully anguished and on the edge. The Scottish play is one that demands a strong relationship between the two principal characters, here we had Alex Medland as Lady Macbeth and Frederik Bang as Macbeth. Here that was imagined well enough however there were times when I felt that both could have worked more on the development of the character over the period of the piece. When you begin with a heightened sense of anger, fury and distress there isn’t much character developmental work to explore.
Technically there was a lot of blood – how many showers Giorgio Manzi as poor Banquo must have endured during the run! – and the effect of a lot of the blood and a lot of the way in which the interaction with the audience, some clearly known to the actors, was handled well. The lighting was highly effective. It added to the ambience of the whole adventure.
Pace between scene changes became ponderous too and a little bit more creativity, allowing us to see those changes would have helped. There was one in particular where Lady Macbeth had to walk a bit of distance in order to get to the centre of where she needed to be, and we were kept in the dark for a little long. That could have been done with lights up. There were times as well where sight lines particularly after Strip the Willow were difficult from where I was sitting however, I was one of many who was just disadvantaged – my choice to sit there – by that whereas the rest seemed to be able to see perfectly well.
It was interesting to see a Strip the Willow in the middle of Macbeth, not something I expected but I think that again is where I feel that this is a company who should find the unexpected and go with it rather than worry about whether or not they have pushed the envelope too much. Musically Eoghan Grigor as Musical director leads a ceilidh band of some note with Instrumentalist Cameron Duff and Percussionist, Harry Bang. I would look forward to seeing this company again and watch the development of them. They are certainly vibrant, and they are certainly unafraid of taking on the classics. What I think they should be doing now is add to that with being unafraid to being a little more out there because there is certainly a great deal of skill and plenty of quality on show that tells me it would be well worth seeing.