At the heart of Shakespeare’s darkest play is a disintegrating marriage. This new adaptation using a radically cut version of the text focuses on the destructive relationship between the ambitious couple. Read more …
Returning from battle, Macbeth hears a prophecy promising money and power. Spurred on by Lady Macbeth, they ignore the creeping sense of guilt and hopelessness and attempt to hasten the hand of fate, unwittingly ushering in the downfall of them both.
First performed at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow in 2017, the Citizens’ Artistic Director Dominic Hill’s brutal and intense production tells the Bard’s famous story in a powerfully concentrated 70 minutes.
While it does not have the richness of the original work, it is a fascinating approach.
A production that simmers towards its damning conclusion.
McEvoy is a superb actor, with much to bring to one of Shakespeare’s great tragic roles; and that Boyd’s performance in this extraordinary adaptation has lost none of its rich, knife-edge glamour, as the Citizens’ company – currently in exile from its Glasgow home – sets off on tour across Scotland.
This stripped-back production makes for an engaging if not electric evening which, though bold, never quite manages to shake off its experimental shackles.
Whatever your conclusion, The Macbeths remains a brave reimagining of the original, infused with emotional depth from the two leads which opens up new perspectives on a centuries-old classic.
For those hoping that the play might cast light on the original will instead find that this staging doesn’t show Macbeth in a new light, so much as with reduced visibility.
Impressive and purposeful in its recasting, as intense as its celebrated predecessor, this restaging of Hill’s adaptation makes one feel as if one is mainlining Shakespeare’s play.
On Tour, from Wednesday October 3, 2018, until Saturday October 27, 2018.
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