MACBETH
Wilton’s Music Hall
★★★★
“This is a strong interpretation”
‘Macbeth’ isn’t the obvious choice for a summer open air tour. ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ or ‘Twelfth Night’ are a safer bet. Or even ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Mind you, The Duke’s Theatre Company have done all those in previous years. So, this year they have taken on the foreboding ‘Scottish Play’ that explores the dark side of ambition and power. Visiting stately homes, castles and gardens – including a spell at Cornwall’s famous Minack – it takes brief shelter under the rafters of Wilton’s Music Hall, where it seems perfectly at home, played out against the flaking walls of the venue. It is hard to imagine it beneath picturesque backdrops and sunsets. Ruth Harvey’s atmospheric lighting, with its blood reds, silhouettes, shadows and smoke, belong in the darkness way beyond sundown.
Jessica Curtis’ set places the action on three blackened platforms, precariously held together by scaffolding poles, painted red with scorched tips. Swirls of dry ice create a wasteland, barren and metallic, with little hope of new life flowering between the cracks. We are in Scotland, but we could be in T S Eliot’s world of ‘The Hollow Men’, or any contemporary strip of land torn apart by tyranny. ‘The Scottish Play’, although over four hundred years old now, still resonates with its themes of unfiltered ambition coupled with self-serving disregard for others. A story of self-obsessed decisions in the pursuit of total power. But also, a prophecy – a warning almost.
Some of the message is lost, however, inside the hall’s difficult acoustics. And nearly every word from the three witches is drowned in its pool of effects and reverb, the essence of which needs filling in with our familiarity with the text. Finnbar Hayman’s Macbeth has no problem, though, with his imposing presence. We first see him and Banquo (Edmund Morris) as they claim the stage, dressed in black like riot police. His readiness to believe the witches’ prophecies hints at an unhinged personality beneath his steely exterior, and Hayman plays on this with an originality that sheds new light on his relationship with his wife. Marilyn Nnadebe truly makes Lady Macbeth the villain of the piece – cool and striking but barely hiding layers of menace. The pair’s chemistry is fraught with sexual tension as her increasingly murderous demands send Macbeth into a powerless, almost erotic, frenzy. It is clear who wears the trousers here.
It is a strong, often multi-rolling, cast that deftly reveals the hierarchy of the period. You wouldn’t want to mess with Alasdair James McLaughlin’s dangerous Macduff, yet at the same time you are convinced by his displays of grief. William Marr is equally convincing as Malcolm; initially weak but eventually claiming his rightful place with triumph and a surprising ferocity. Jenni Walker is in fine form in a series of minor roles until she has her moment as the ill-fated Lady Macduff. James Lavender, killed off early as King Duncan, returns as a hilarious and spell binding Porter – the only time the fourth wall is broken as he treats the audience to some much-needed comic relief.
Director Robert Shaw Cameron propels the action with slick scene transitions that often overlap, unravelling the story as briskly as the collapse of Macbeth’s sanity. Rob Millett’s percussive, regimental soundtrack casts ominous threats of violence that march off into the shadows. We get a sense of the expanse of the Scottish Highlands but also the claustrophobia, especially when the scaffolding poles morph into Birnam Wood, like prison bars closing in on Macbeth’s fate. The production can boast high energy, although it often relies on a shoutiness that could do with being reined in. This is a strong interpretation of “Macbeth”. A bold choice for the company that pays off at Wilton’s Music Hall. Let’s hope it can win over the picnicking, sun-drenched audiences scattered around England’s gardens (although, typically, the rain is falling thick and fast now as I am writing this).
MACBETH
Wilton’s Music Hall then UK Tour continues
Reviewed on 29th July 2025
by Jonathan Evans
Photography by Lidia Crisafulli
Previously reviewed at this venue:
ROMEO AND JULIET | ★★★ | June 2025
MARY AND THE HYENAS | ★★★ | March 2025
THE MAGIC FLUTE | ★★★★ | February 2025
POTTED PANTO | ★★★★★ | December 2024
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE | ★★★★ | October 2024
THE GIANT KILLERS | ★★★★ | June 2024
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM | ★★★★★ | April 2024
POTTED PANTO | ★★★★★ | December 2023
FEAST | ★★★½ | September 2023
I WISH MY LIFE WERE LIKE A MUSICAL | ★★★★★ | August 2023
