Review: MACBETH, The Actors' Church

“Church Hall if wet”

So goes the last line on many a poster for a village fete in England; a sensible precaution on an island that still gets more drizzly rain than extreme heat, Everyone has a good time, but it’s a different experience without the sun overhead, the pollen in the air and the lightness that one always feels in one’s step come late summer’s dog days.

After seven summers outdoors, Shakespeare In The Squares has not gone into the church halls, but into the churches themselves, for an inaugural winter season under a roof, starting with one of Shakey’s crowdpleasing bankers, Macbeth. Does their formula, which delivers such bucolic delights on those balmy evenings when even Chelsea or Walthamstow can feel like Arden, work in a vast enclosed space, chilly and artificially lit? Perhaps it can, but, on the evidence of what is only their second performance, there’s still some way to go.  

Director, Sioned Jones, wants to do something different with the play and she certainly does. The Weird Sisters are fortune tellers in drag, perhaps a bit more Two Ronnies than intended, and Macbeth himself is even harder to place than is usually the case. Gavin Molloy affects the rictus grin of Ricky Gervais when he is looking down the camera with a passive aggressive stare. With Cathy Walker also smiling a lot as Lady Macbeth, but with a more unhinged air clinging to her person, the main characters are never really grounded, the tone of the production bouncing from comedy to horror from one conversation to the next. The cast is rounded out by Sam D’Leon, Mohab Kaddah and Molly Walker all multi-rolling, singing and playing instruments and often breaking the fourth wall. The sheer number of costume changes is dizzying. 

The murders, the psychosis, the ambiguity embedded in Shakespeare’s construction of the hesitant anti-hero and his ruthless Queen, are lost in something more akin to pantomime than to madness - an acceptable take, but tricky to pull off, especially in a 90 minutes dash.

The biggest issue is that the acoustics of the cavernous space render the speeches all but inaudible even up close and lip-reading as best I can. Scottish accents (some quite strong) don’t help for all the authenticity they bring, but the main issue is that the words are spoken too quickly, one syllable bouncing off the hard surfaces and colliding with the next only for both to sail up to the roof. Not just irritating in losing the rhythm and beauty of the verse, but also shedding the weight that the text needs to bring its considerable power to its performance. 

At the moment, this production counts as a missed opportunity, but easing back on the panto elements, allowing the cast to relax a little (so we can too) and finding line readings that work in the very different internal spaces new to this company, can bring an innovative and unique Macbeth to audiences wanting a Scottish Play for 2024. 

Macbeth plays various venues until 30 November

Photo images: James Millar   

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