★★★★

“For Tennant’s performance alone, it is worth seeing this production”

After a critically acclaimed run at the Donmar Warehouse, Max Webster’s Macbeth is being brought to the screen. Filmed theatre is a tricky beast, on the one hand it provides accessibility and longevity, on the other it often struggles to capture the pin-drop intensity of being in the room. This film manages, mostly, to capture the magic. It’s a different experience but it’s still a sublime production.

Webster’s thoroughly modern and psychologically fraught show, pares back the theatricality and leaves us with a claustrophobic tale of untamed ambition and hubris.

We open on a close shot of a bowl of water. Blood drips into it, droplet by droplet. David Tennant as Macbeth, sits, wringing the blood from a cloth. The tight shot of his face allows us to see every ripple of anguish. For his performance, the film is worth it. He is tortured and conniving, witty and sensual, mad and ashamed. It is the kind of performance that defines a character. It’ll be referred to in textbooks of the future.

The design is sparse and monochromic. A bright white stage (designed by Rosanna Vize), actors in black (save Lady Macbeth in white) and a dark glass backdrop. Through this we see the larger cast, multi-roling into a chorus, who commentate and berate from the other side. The glass is interesting, it allows some chilling moments (a running child covered in blood, tree branches tickling the glass) but the brightness of the white stage is more effective. The film includes aerial shots, allowing us to see people lying on the stage, dancing on the stage, dying on the stage. This is a bonus of the film; it gives you a chance to view the piece from every angle.

In the stage play Webster had audience members wear headphones, with actors whispering in their ears to create a near immersive surround sound. This works in a cinema, and does make the audience feel more immersed, though it lacks the innovative punch of the original concept.

While it’s really Tennant’s show, the rest of the cast are very strong. Cush Jumbo as Lady Macbeth is a loving version, coming alive in her frustration and embarrassment at her husband’s unravelling. Their connection, and chemistry, gives a sexy heartbeat to the relationship. Jatinder Singh Randhawa as the Porter is hilarious, ad-libbing away and playing on the audience’s headphone wearing. Rona Morison as Lady Macduff is subtle and tragic. Noof Ousellam’s Macduff brings tears to the eyes in his quiet grief, definitely making him an actor to look out for.

The more theatrical moments don’t translate so well to screen, the visit from the witches fails to stir the necessary fearfulness. The show chooses the psychological over the magical, which works, but means when it strays into prophecy it feels incongruous. Similarly, what gets noticed on screen is less forgiving. The costumes leave a little to be desired, for instance everyone is in patent leather Chelsea boots. Interestingly that’s something that would be easily ignored on stage, but is glaring on screen.

This has not entirely converted me to the wonders of filmed theatre, but it has definitely softened me towards it. While it is undoubtably not as good as being there, it is a close second. For Tennant’s performance alone, it is worth seeing this production.

VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN at Hampstead Theatre

★★

“Hampton is not a writer known for his humour, but the script is relentlessly grim”

Since Hampstead Theatre lost its Arts Council funding their programming has been shaped by the need for philanthropic donations. It seems a safe choice then, to programme the UK premiere of the latest Christopher Hampton adaptation, which will surely encourage audience attendance. Unfortunately, while this play explores many of Hampton’s favourite themes – memory and time, loss and obsession, seduction – it falls emotionally flat and is overwritten to the point of parody.

The story is moving, if slightly sentimental. It is based on a Zweig novella of the same name and is set against the building xenophobic tensions of 1930s Vienna. But this political context gets only the briefest of nods. Instead, the play focusses on two characters, a middle-aged writer, Stefan, whose biography seems curiously similar to Zweig’s own, and a mysterious young woman, Marianne, whose sexual enthusiasm is made disquieting by a peculiar familiarity with Stefan’s life. The story unravels into a personal tragedy, with sex and casual cruelty at its poignant heart.

Chelsea Walker’s direction shines in the passion between the two, but somehow fails to inject this verbose two hander with the necessary emotional depth to carry it.

Hampton is not a writer known for his humour, but the script is relentlessly grim. Marianne’s story in particular, is emotionally monotonal. Whether that’s the script, performance or direction is unclear, but there is a sore lack of light and shade.

The dynamic between the two should be fascinating, but Marianne’s unrelenting and unbelievable selflessness feels more like Zweig’s (or Hampton’s) own fantasy than a real woman.

James Corrigan, playing Stefan, has been brought on late into the process, only taking over the role after the first week of performances, and bearing that in mind his performance is impressive. He plays the writer as a Hugh Grant-esque bumbling charmer. It’s a good performance, but maybe lacks the magnetism which can birth the level of obsession which the play explores. Natalie Simpson’s performance is a little one note, but as discussed, that’s not entirely her fault. It would’ve been interesting to see this character unravel more, but there are a couple of moments where Simpson’s range is unleashed. Nigel Hastings has a walk on part of Johann the butler, which feels a little random, but he embodies it well. Jessie Gattward as a young Marianne is deeply sinister, with a moment of pained physical theatre which works well in balance with the naturalism.

The set (Rosanna Vize), sound (Peter Rice) music (Max Perryment) and lighting (Bethany Gupwell) are excellent. The set is an apartment, with a landing, and a huge pile of wilted white roses rotting in the darkened corner outside. The music, at one point echoed by Corrigan on the piano, provides a haunting refrain as the play shifts through time and memory. The lighting alters to play with shadow, building an excellent atmosphere which never quite comes to a climax.

Of all novellas ever written, or even all Zweig novellas, this is a strange one to choose to adapt. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it lies in the biographical hints of Zweig’s own life – he wrote it shortly before he left Vienna for South America where he committed suicide. Knowing that (or reading the programme) brings moving light onto the reaction of the writer, but without it, the play feels a little adrift, almost like a scene within a longer play to which the audience is not privy.

MACBETH

In Cinemas

★★★★

“For Tennant’s performance alone, it is worth seeing this production”

MACBETH

In Cinemas from 5th February

Reviewed on 20th January 2025

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Marc Brenner

Previously reviewed at the Donmar Warehouse:

MACBETH

MACBETH

MACBETH

VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN at Hampstead Theatre

★★

“Hampton is not a writer known for his humour, but the script is relentlessly grim”