A hell of a spectacle in The Globe's Macbeth
Gory imagery makes it a play to remember.
A VISION of hell has been unleashed on the stage of The Globe and for some it was too much.
Was it the surfeit of blood or the sight of a traitor's tongue tossed into the audience during the first few minutes of Lucy Bailey's visually powerful rendition of Shakespeare's "Scottish play"?
Whatever the reason the nightmarish spectacle dispatched two groundlings to the floor of the theatre before the interval and no amount of unholy magic would encourage them to return.
The play, whose name we dare not utter – okay then, fingers crossed, Macbeth – doesn't scrimp on the red stuff and neither does designer Katrina Lindsay. It must be said The Globe gives good blood and in this supernatural tale of power, lust and ambition, it is given its own starring role.
This Macbeth is a true Gothic horror story that will give the weak at heart nightmares. Bailey has plundered Dante's images of hell to come up with a template every bit as terrifying.
The poor groundlings suffer for their art and decision to buy the cheap standing tickets in the pit by having their disembodied heads thrust through slits in black canvas that surrounds the stage and there they must stand, trapped in their own personal torment, for the 2hr 50mins duration.
When the bloodied tongue of the duplicitous Thane of Cawdor is thrown aloft it is batted like a hot potato away from one squeamish head to another. The arrival of blood-soaked spectres and the three evil-looking hags through other larger rents in the fabric are met with equal disgust.
But what of Shakespeare's most unholy of plays? Elliot Cowan, visceral as Stanley Kowalski in the recent award-winning Donmar production of Streetcar, makes a worthy leading man although his diction is sometimes strained in this most physical of roles as he gives vent to his inner rage and insanity.
Cowan opens the proceedings in gung-ho fashion, a battle-weary hero bathing in the bloody, testosterone-fuelled adulation of King Duncan (a very noble James Clyde) and his peers when he returns victorious from fighting the Norwegians.
He is very much reminiscent of Jon Finch's mesmeric performance in Polanski's ground-breaking 1972 movie, sexually and physically unpredictable and fatally dangerous to know.
Macbeth is incensed at an apparent snub by his king in giving him recognition for his victory, and, spurred by his conniving wife, sets out to take what he believes is rightfully his.
He really gets into his stride when the madness and violence kicks in as he attempts to wrestle the crown of Scotland from his friends and foes.
We're treated to a thrilling edge of your seat ride through The Bard's version of Scottish history and one that is bathed in unmitigated horror.
As Macbeth towers over the production he is matched equally by his soldiers in arms – James McArdle's noble and brave Malcolm and Christian Bradley's betrayed Banquo.
We're treated to a deliberately low-key performance by Laura Rogers as the scheming, red-haired and, ultimately mentally fragile Lady M. They made a wonderful Satanic coupling.
The production is impressive and atmospheric. The black-dressed stage and stylish, though sombre, black and grey of the men's costumes contrasted splendidly with the splashes of blood and the red of the Weird Sisters' rags. It is stylised yet effective.
A high point, if it can be called such, was the (literally) show-stopping cameo of Frank Scantori as the filthy, lewd and obese porter of Macbeth's Castle who epitomised how deep his masters had descended into hell.
At one points he squats and urinates and there's a lovely bit of business from vaudeville when he teases the audience with the watery contents of the bucket.
It was a typical Shakespearean moment of light relief among a battlefield of the dead and damned.
Macbeth is shocking, horrific, haunting and powerful and an early highlight of The Globe's Kings and Rogues season.
Running in rep until June 27. For tickets call the box office 020 7401 9919.
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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