Macbeth Review

Production: Macbeth
Company: World-In-Theater & NAFA
Year: 2008

I have experienced the aftershocks of emotions after a particularly good play. However, the staging of this version of Macbeth had merely left me exhausted. It has certainly not lived up to my expectations.

The set of the play was cleverly designed to suit the dark, gothic atmosphere of Macbeth, especially the flapping, blood-red curtains. The usage of the 2 main pieces of blocks was clever, but they were obstructive to the audiences’ view at times – for example, during Lady Macbeth’s (Adelynn Tan) entrance in Scene 5.

The prologue of the play included a much annoying element of violin into the play. Throughout the play, the discord of violin tunes continuously harassed the audience’s attention, and had distracted me from the play to the screeching of the violin strings. The lackluster display of the battle scene had given me a doomed outlook on the performance of the play yet to come.

Fortunately, the 3 witches’ entrance hit the right key. The exotic, intriguing and excruciatingly twisted performance of Patricia Toh, Shahrin Johry and Sufri Juwahir was stunning, and shrouded the scene in the mysterious ambiance. Their fluid, yet otherworldly, moves and painfully pitched voices had sent shrivels down my spine.

The scenes that followed were little of match. Other than the performance by Mohan Sachdev as Duncan, the other actors appeared distant to their role. The Thanes had little life in them, even in the news of their victory. The unified “yes!” was a bore as emotions were faded and short-lived. The reactions of Macbeth (Sonny Tan) and Banquo to the witches seemed to suggest that they were even less freaked out by the creatures than the audience. Adelynn Tan’s performance was relatively more emotive than the scenes that preceded it. Unfortunately, the “unsex me here” speech, which had been heralded as one of the most spine-chilling speeches of all time, was scantly performed. She rushed through the speeches, and the unexpected appearance of the witches was disruptive to her performance.

The murder of Duncan scene, in contrast, was one of my favorite scenes throughout the play. The lights were dimmed to match the darkness of the night, and cloaked the scene with a foreboding sense of dread. It was one of the most suspenseful scenes in the play. The only source of relief was Patricia Toh’s hilarious, drunken, and sometimes humorously obscene, performance as the porter.

From then on, the play became a drudgery to watch for a good number of scenes. Banquo’s soliloquy was too soft to hear, and the depiction of the murder scene as purely sounds was messy and bland. It was not till the banquet scene when the play started to gain momentum.

The entrance of dancers during the banquet scene was a well thought of element to introduce, though the claps of the guests occasionally muffled the conversation between Macbeth and the Murderer. The depiction of Banquo’s ghost as a beam of light was undeniably on the spot. This, together with the manhandling of Lady Macbeth by Macbeth, served to exemplify Macbeth’s madness. During this scene, all the actors, with special salutations to Adelynn and Sonny Tan, seemed to live their characters. The insanity, the shock, the frustration and fear was presented in full-blown, and this is a star scene in the play.

The witches in the succeeding scene had, again, the magnificent freak factor. I applaud the director, Shelly Quick, for the casting of the apparitions as 3 white-veiled mystics with the text-stated apparitions held faintly visible through their veils. It effectively overcame the technical difficulties of casting the apparitions, but the entrances of these creatures could have been refined.

The usage of toys in the scene with Lady Macduff was creative and suitable. It had more impact than any appearance of the boy.

The climax of the play was at the sleepwalking scene. I was absolutely amazed by Adelynn’s performance; her actions were crazed, frantic and dreamy, fitting for a woman gone mad. It was backed too by Mohan’s humorous, and even cute, performance as the Doctor. It was an absolute enchantment.

However, at this part of the play, it is again plagued by colorless scenes. The exchange between Macduff and Malcolm was poorly done. It seemed that the actors had become tired, seeing that more than 1 hour had gone by. The ending was marked by a typical “tomorrow” speech, and absolutely lusterless battle scenes. The fighting was devoid of emotions, and the choreography was lacking in reality. The ending of the play had a suggestive of further conflicts with the kingship of Scotland, a conventional and modern Hollywood technique. It sort of denied the tragedy of its catharsis.

It was an adventurous effort by Shelly Quick, and a worthy effort. Many mistakes were made though, without which the play could have been much more successful. If I have to rate this play with a max score of 10, I would give it a 7.