Max Bennett’s Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Thameside replica reaches for the crown just ahead of Reuben Joseph for the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon this month and David Tennant in London, in December. Why might there be sudden interest in Shakespeare’s study of someone who ruthlessly pursues power and then proves unsuited to it? To even up casting opportunity, most classical stagings now ignore the old code of M (male) and F (female) roles. The approach here, though, is less gender-neutral than gender-pointed. Director Abigail Graham makes the witches not weird sisters but a trio of sinister brothers wearing full hazmat suits and birds-of-prey masks.
Atmospherically, Macbeth is Shakespeare’s darkest play – there is comment on the sun’s reluctance to rise – but at the open-air Globe, even in a dull summer, this short play is almost wholly day-lit. Darkness must descend in other ways. Aaron Anthony finds the full shock and horror in the tricky lines where Macduff learns his family’s fate, and fight director Bret Yount contrives unnervingly convincing murders.
