Macbeth by GRADS

Macbeth by GRADS

DISCLAIMER: In the interests of objectivity, I obviously must disclaim that I viewed this production knowing, and counting as a friend, the director (Garreth Bradshaw), and the actors playing  Macbeth (Cameron Clark), Macduff (Michael Lamont), Banquo (Patrick Downes) and Witch/Ross (Jo Williams). 

I originally did not wish to write a review, as I know many people involved in the show. However, following Pettigrew's comments, I thought I would like volunteer my "considered" opinion for Bass Guy and others. :) 

To my friends; please don't kneecap me! I just thought you deserved an honest, and explanatory review.

DISCLAIMER 2: I saw this production on opening night, and am going again on closing.

DISCLAIMER 3: This is my first review on this website. Previously, I have mainly contributed a rather... unpopular blog on blackface makeup. :P

Overall, I would summarise this production of Macbeth as being hit and miss. There were some techniques/ideas/performances and that worked for me and some that didn't.

I'll be nice and get the constructive criticism out of the way first, before I say what I liked. 

Firstly, where I think the production ultimately "missed" for me, was the pacing. 

I know that Garreth loves pace and energy in his shows, but unfortunately, especially when I saw it, the pace was pushed too hard at times, and became detrimental to the emotional weight and understanding of the show. I felt sorry for the miriad of school kiddies in attendance, as even I found it hard to follow initially, and it took me longer than usual to get my "Shakespeare ear" in and working effectively. And especially unfortunate was the performers who initially suffered the most from the overly eager pace: Mr and Mrs Macbeth.

As mentioned above, Cameron Clark (Macbeth) is a good friend of mine, but I did feel his performance was hindered by starting at such a high energy/delivery level. He started at an 8 (so to speak), but this left him with nowhere to go performance wise. He could only become more manic, and you could see him absolutely slogging his guts out trying to show the deterioration and mental decay in his character. However, his performance in the quiet moments showed great growth and charisma.

Similarly, Lady M absolutely sped through most of her dialogue, and this meant that most scenes between her and Mr M only left you with an overwhelming feeling of pace. Any beats, revelations, coercion or sense of mental games between the two tended to get lost in the break-neck speed of their scenes. All the "risque" stuff between them lost its shock or effectiveness because any sense of the intention behind the action was drowned in the pace. After most of their scenes, I would only realise at the end of the scene that a character had changed their mind/or had their mind changed by another, and I had missed it completely.

As this tended to occur mainly at the start of the show, perhaps this was the main contributor to some people's perception of this production as having "style over substance". (That's for you, Bass Guy :P) 

What also didn't help is that, I felt that only 5 out of the 12 performers had any real command of the text and their characters. This is despite knowing that Garreth has a tendency to beat iambic pentameter into his actors with a stick! Perhaps this also was a contributor to people's reception of the show. Additionally, there were some sloppy entrances and moments of dead stage at missed cues. 

Despite this though, I did enjoy some elements of the production. The director, Garreth, has recently been exploring the use of rhythm and beat (ie. stamping/chanting) in his works, in line with the theories of David Suzuki. (EDIT: Its actually Tadashi Suzuki. Apologies, I should've checked.)

I personally have done hours of chanting and stamping under Garreth's direction (even with the aforementioned stick). I thought his exploration of this in the opening five minutes of the play, and indeed, all the witches' scenes was especially effective. The witches scenes, for me personally, were the strongest of the play. The "bubble bubble" scene with the cauldron and Hecate mask was especially strong. 

That being said, towards the end of the play, I would've actually liked the rhythm and stamping to return. Through the last act especially, when I felt the pace dropped off, I would've liked to see the stamping re-emerge to help build tension and Macbeth's sense of entrapment and despair as his world crumbled. Garreth used this technique very effectively in his production of The Life of Galileo. As part of my own aesthetic tastes, I also think it would've made a nice "bookend" so to speak with the opening scene of the play.

In my own juvenile way, I also liked some of the Tarentino-esque gore; it made me laugh out of shock/comic relief. I thought the vomit and the eyeball were especially effective. They provided a nice break to the text and visceral way of exploring characters reactions/situations. Some of the other gore moments I thought were less effective- but more so out of the prop design and execution, than the directors intention. 

EDIT: Additionally, I also liked the fight choreography between Macbeth and Macduff. The eye jab in particular looked awesome from where I sat. The pace and intensity of the fight was good. Some of the other smaller "stunt" stuff was good, especially the Lady Macduff moment. It got a genuine gasp from the audience. Solid work. :)

In lieu of my comments above, I felt I should note some of the performances I did enjoy. As written above in my disclaimer, I am friends with four of the main cast in Macbeth, and though I know this could paint a target on this post for trollers and critiques, I thought generally, they, along with the actor who played The Porter/Doctor/Shaman/Priest provided some of the strongest performances. Not because they are mostly my friends and colleagues (though any of them will tell you I am a critical and opinionated theatre goer) but because I thought they had the best command of the text and stage-presence of the cast. Patrick Downes and Jo Williams in particular had the best command and delivery of the iambic pentameter. On pure emotional range alone, I enjoyed the scene where Macduff found out about the death of his family (IIII:iii), and the sleepwalking Lady M scene. The emotional weight was well performed and stood out for me as being especially strong. 

I agree that some elements of the prop and costume design were a little... odd, but I liked the simplicity of the set, which in typical Garreth fashion was probably done with the intention of cutting the superfluous dressing and c**p that can sometimes pad out/soften Shakespeare for audiences, and make you focus on the text. The use of the banners in particular was really well done and a great concept. :) 

So there you are, my considered opinion of the show. I am looking forward to going again tomorrow, and seeing how it may have changed and grown over the last 2 weeks. Chookas to the cast for their next shows. See you there. :)