 | Macbeth |  |
"There 's daggers in men's smiles" Act II, scene iv
Written: 1605
Stratford Festival of Canada ; June 1, 2009 Stratford, Canada
Director : Des McAnuff ; Starring : Colm Feore (Macbeth), Yanna McIntosh (Lady Macbeth), Dion Johnstone (Macduff), Gareth Potter (Malcolm), Timothy Stickney (Banquo), John Vickery (Ross), Geraint Wyn Davies (Duncan)
Reviewed on : 2009-06-02 11:07:23 ; Reviewed by : Antonia Mandry
| This performance of Macbeth served not only as the production's opening night, but also as the opening night of the Stratford Festival of Canada. As one of the most significant Canadian cultural events of the year, the pomp and circumstance was in full view. Bagpipers played, men demonstrated their kilt-wearing prowess, ladies trotted out their best finery, and the glitter of the event was matched by the flash of the paparazzi in attendance. The audience hummed with excitement, sadly not matched by the production itself, a fact attributable mainly to the director's choices.
In Des McAnuff's directorial notes in the program for Macbeth, he evokes a mishmash of cultural and political touchstones for his production. From the violent political scene of 1960s U.S.A. to the bloody emergence of modern African nations, McAnuff attempts to tap into the local consciousness of disparate locales; this very specificity serves to rob the production of a real sense of place and while the latter flaw will be observable to any audience member, the former cause will not unless the program notes are read. My advice: do not read the program notes, and you will enjoy the performance more.
The production was uneven, with a weaker first half, but primarily studded with a series of strong moments and scenes surrounded by long stretches of sequences strangely robbed of their power and energy. With this solid cast, such temperamental innocuousness is hard to fathom, but devolves to three causes: blocking, lighting, and rhythm. The lighting design is mainly low to dark and dull, which would work if the set was developed to match, but with such a bare stage merely evokes distance and disengages the audience. The use of video screens in such a darkened stage draws the audience's eye to the screens to little effect, particularly with the incomprehensible image of the corpses hanging from the tree, the symbolism of which was lost. Furthermore, the blocking in some scenes serves little sense or purpose. In one early scene, Ross (Vickery), Macbeth (Feore) and an extra stand absolutely still in a diagonal line facing each other, effectively blocking the view of a segment of the audience from seeing their faces. The blocking seems to primarily serve only one portion of the audience. Finally, the rhythm of the play is erratic: from a starting series of explosions to long stretches of passionless soliloquies to the occasional powerful psychological sequence, the audience is by turns riveted and bored, with far too much of the latter.
The performances reflect this imbalance. After the preliminary explosions and fights, from the scattered corpses of the battlefield emerge the witches, battlefield scavengers and survivors. This extremely effective visual is marred by a weak Second Sister and the occasional directorial mistake, such as having the Weird Sisters saying things that do not match their actions. The "acting" is extremely visible in this performance, with Gareth Potter's Malcolm more inconsequential an afterthought than normal. Even Colm Feore, a consummate professional, can be seen calculating the trajectory of his leap to the table during his "Dagger" speech. This general flaw can be seen especially in how the characters interact with each other. None of the relationships seem real; fatally, this is very true of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's marriage. Feore and Yanna McIntosh, who do better when on stage alone, inject no passion or chemistry into their scenes together. Passion, in essence, is what is missing from this production, save for a few powerhouse scenes.
These scenes include the banquet scene, which is carried off flawlessly and so convincingly the audience forgot to preen for the cameras. Timothy Stickney, as a living Banquo, is dashing and handsome, but evidently can creepily carry off playing a ghost as well. The staging of his various appearances and disappearances at the table was so well implemented that it evoked chills. Feore's paranoia and McIntosh's embarrassment are palpable, and the applause as the scene ended was genuine. The transition from the murder of Banquo to banquet was also a masterpiece of stage management, with effective auditory misdirection in the darkened stage serving to flawlessly carry off the surprise when the lights rose of seeing the banquet scene fully set up. Dion Johnstone as Macduff also served the audience well with his grief and disbelief when discovering his family was slaughtered, and rejoicing as well in his own violent victory over Macbeth when decapitating him with shovel on the trunk of a jeep.
As an opening night Festival event, this was a disappointing performance, but there remains hope that the production will hit its stride as the season progresses.
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Sir John Gilbert, R.A.,
The Three Witches
Reviews
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July 14, 2011 |  | Royal Shakespeare Company
April 28, 2011 |  | Theater Konstanz
September 30, 2009 |  | Stratford Festival of Canada
June 1, 2009 |  | Centraltheater
March 19, 2009 |  | Royal Exchange Theatre
March 11, 2009 |  | La Saillie at Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse
February 6, 2009 |  | Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
January 9, 2009 |  | Chichester Festival Theatre
February 15, 2008 |  | The Gielgud Theatre
September 27, 2007 |  | Subterranean Shakespeare
April 28, 2007 |  | Stratford Festival of Canada
August 6, 2004 |  | Das Werk
2001 |  | Greasy Joan Company
2000 |  | Lyric Opera of Chicago
1999 |
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