-
-
Ad Space
(728 x 90)
Published on 5/13/08
Video
Survey
Many’s the time I’ve been terrified watching Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Through parted fingers I watched this classic get butchered by sitcom star Kelsey Grammer on Broadway in 2000, and two years ago, my hair stood on end during the Public Theater’s lame version in Central Park with Liev Schreiber. Now ex-Star Trek helmer (and Royal Shakespeare Company veteran) Patrick Stewart takes a stab at the demon-haunted tragedy, and the results are scarifying indeed—this time for all the right reasons.
Paired with hot young director Rupert Goold, Stewart plays the titular tyrant as an aging military man in a 1950s Stalinist dictatorship. This Macbeth stalks a modular, institutional set that resembles a drab underground bunker with dirty tile walls and an old elevator used for ominous entrances and exits. You can imagine the space would be perfect for midnight tortures and executions. The three “weird sisters” who prophesy Macbeth’s ascension to the throne are played by a trio of sinister, fatal nurses. For extra spookiness, Goold throws in assaultive sound effects and ghostly multimedia video projections. For all the conceptual framing and cinematic shock tactics, however, the ensemble delivers a smart, accessible reading of the text, grounded by Stewart’s gravitas and those velvety vocal cords. Luckily, this is no star vehicle; there’s fine work by coldly beautiful Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth, Martin Turner as the conscience-stricken Banquo and Michael Feast as the feral, avenging Macduff. All are classically trained pros of the first order and mesh perfectly with Goold’s sensational staging. Yes, in case you’d forgotten, Macbeth can still be bloody brilliant.
—David Cote
Rate & Comment