I am sitting here in my dressing-gown, the
morning after, trying to get my thoughts straight.
We had a bit of struggle to get to the theatre, which involved
a lot of standing on trains and walking the MK end, but we made
it in time with not much to spare. Imagine first our horror when
the announcement came that "due to technical difficulties,
tonight's performance of Macbeth will be ,,,,," (no, don't
cancel it) then our relief when they carried on "25 minutes
late". Phew! That gave us time for a stiff drink on Sean's
behalf and a visit to the loo etc. :-)
MK is a nice theatre. Large and spacious and comfortably laid
out. There were lots of large school parties so we were worried
that it might be a restless audience, but they all settled down
(apart from some coughing and the occasional sweet wrappers going).
The rest of the audience was made up of a proportion of 'ladies
of a certain age' as Abbie brilliantly put it.
Ed Hall came on stage to apologise for the delay. The gist of
his message was that even by his own standards, he had managed
to create a complicated setting for the play and consequently
where most casts had plenty of rehearsal time together in the
theatre, including dress performances, this production hadn't
and so this was, for all intents and purposes, THE dress rehearsal.
He said if it came to a grinding halt, anyone got hurt or any
other mishap, he would leap up on stage and try to get things
started again. He need not have worried. If he hadn't said anything,
I wouldn't have known it was their first cohesive performance.
The play starts with lots of noise, smoke and action. A very atmospheric
beginning which worked brilliantly. The three witches come over
very well and they sing an eery and haunting song, which adds
to the mood.
The play had a very militaristic look and some of the soldiers'
uniforms made them look Eastern European. Yet by the end of the
play it seemed firmly rooted in Scotland, with England as a supportive
neighbour. Sean's uniforms were a mix of leather and traditional,
and for a lot of the time, as a soldier, he has a kind of black,
see-through string vest thing which goes under his armour, possibly
to represent chainmail. Big boots and baggy trousers completed
the look. However, he also does one scene in a dressing gown and
bare feet and one very sexy scene with the three witches in which
he is bare chested (and very lovely!).
The actual stage scenery had a stark and metallic feel to it and
lended itself well to the inside and out of Macbeth's and Macduff's
castles. The stage effects were superb: a really clever fire
that lit and died at will in the middle of the floor, lots of
knolling bells, screeching owls, battle noise and smoke etc. The
lighting too was well done.
The play sets a cracking pace and keeps it up for the whole two
hours. It really moved along fast and was exciting. There is
a short interval. Sean, Samantha Bond and Julian Glover are the
three stars, no doubt.
Samantha Bond is a wonderful Lady Macbeth. Attractive, sexy, strong
and quite frightening in her determination to steel her husband's
resolve and carry out the initial murders. She and Sean work wonderfully
together.
I loved Sean's performance. OK, so I am biased, but his delivery
to me came over naturally and easy to understand. He really seemed
to have understood the flow of the language and managed to put
so much expression and feeling into it. His scene with the dagger
'before him,' which could easily have been corny, was quite brilliant,
as was the scene where he sees Banquo's ghost.
I can't wait to see it again. The general feeling in the audience
seemed to be that it was an entertaining and exciting production.
The woman in the row in front of me remarked to her friend that
it was the best thing she had ever seen at the MK theatre. Sean
can be very proud of himself - he is very good and the audiences
will love it.
Congratulations Sean!!