| Passion’s dart falls off the board |
At Volcano Theatre |
| Macbeth Director’s Cut , The Riverfront , October 18, 2016 |
| Back in 2014 I was directing a play, ‘The Body of an American’ for a new Swansea based company Tent of Xerxes, my journey from the station to the Grand Theatre took me past Volcano Theatre’s Iceland base. There posters were displayed announcing an extension to the run of ‘Seagull’ due to its successful reception. Sadly my schedule did not allow me the opportunity to see it. When I saw the announcement of the revival of ‘MACBETH Director’s Cut’, I determined to see it hoping to put behind me the bad Volcano theatre experiences I had witnessed with their take on Romeo and Juliet and their negative contribution to an early National Theatre Wales production in Swansea’s Old Library, which was the star of that show. Sadly this was not to be. I left the theatre enraged. I thought a good night’s sleep might weaken my apathy but I awoke thinking, how on earth could any one want to put this onto the stage. Clearly I am not at one with this approach to theatre. I did enjoy the real commitment and the charm of the two actors Alex Harries, best know for his role as DC Lloyd Elis in the BBC1 drama Hinterland. He describes his role as Macbeth as “The most challenging thing I have ever done”. He certainly rises to and meets these challenges head on. There is some complex modern dance movement in the open sequence, expertly choreographed by Catherine Bennett that he masters superbly. His menacing wife played by Welsh trained, Scottish actor Mairi Phillips, returning to Volcano, also excels and blends perfectly with Harries throughout the whole production and particularly in this dynamic sequence. Clearly Volcano founding director Paul Davies is not asking us to completely suspend our disbelief or expecting us to believe that we are watching a real Macbeth and Lady Macbeth despite the cast embracing these roles with heightened passion but without any inner sincerity. Early in the performance they step out of character and smilingly engage the audience with banter on the nature of time. Why? They also move amongst us towards the end urging six members of the audience to join them onstage for a celebratory banquet. Some of these people are very convincing as they read dialogue set out on the placemats placed before them. The food, Lady Macbeth’s very poorly prepared scrambled eggs doesn’t look at all appetizing! As we enter the auditorium we see a young lady, who we later discover is our Lady Macbeth walking around the perimeter of the stage several times sprinkling what looks like salt from a shiny metal bucket. Why? Sat on the floor close up to the left wall of the stage what appears to be a stage technician seems to be doing a bit of electric wiring. He’s our Macbeth. The design for this show could be any thing. Beirut architect and musician trained in stage design at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Tina Torbey gives us several large white boxes that our actors keep climbing in and out of. Why? If this is how a set must work, then it works well. In fact the staging of this piece is perfect. Believability is it’s main problem. There is no real tension as we watch them run around the stage planning to kill the king. Can this woman be taken seriously as she ‘acts’ thunder and lightning by bending close to the floor and bellowing then standing she twists her body about and makes sizzling noises. I just don’t get it. Maybe Davies is some sub-Picasso-like artist who uses the stage for his canvas. No doubt he succeeds on his own values but not on mine. Be good to see these two excellent performers in a ‘proper’ production of Macbeth. For touring details contact: http://www.volcanotheatre.co.uk |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
This review has been read 1547 times There are 31 other reviews of productions with this title in our database:
|
