Synopsis of Macbeth
Based on the classic play written by William Shakespeare, this version of Macbeth has been performed creatively by the two performing members of the theatre company ‘Out of Chaos’. These two performers played all the roles in the play between them both. The play follows Macbeth, who is prophesied to become King of Scottland, but it is not prophesised how he will become king. With the help of his wife, Macbeth does whatever it takes to get what he wants.
Analysis of Macbeth
First of all, I just want to note that ‘Out of Chaos’ did an amazing job with the facilities available to them. It is clear that they both have a huge passion for the play, and that was made clear with their strong performance, and this is an amazing thing.
However, there were many faults with this production which as impacted my final overall rating greatly.
When someone books tickets to see a play at a big theatre such as the Empire, they expect to see a great play with lots of amazing sets, props, costumes and actors, but unfortunately this play didn’t have much of this at all. Perhaps its partly my own fault for having such high expectations.
This play did not have any set at all, just a blank stage with changes in lighting depending on the scene. Don’t get me wrong, the lighting was amazing, but I feel that a lot was missing due to lack of set. As well as this, as there were only two actors, they both played all the roles, and it became quite confusing which characters they were playing at each time. The fact that they were both playing all the characters meant that they were both needed on stage at the same time, so there was no time for any costume changes, so both actors were in the same costumes for the whole show, which I feel limited the performance too.
The crowd was quite rowdy throughout the performance, and I believe this is because of the lack of visuals or wow-factor on stage. Unfortunately, due to the lack of theatrics, it just felt more like a script read-through than an actual performance. However, there were elements of the play where the actors attempted to get some kind of audience participation by getting the audience to read out some lines, however, this made the play feel more like a panto than a serious Shakespeare play.
Summary of Macbeth
To summarise, although the actors’ passion for Macbeth was very clear, it wasn’t enough to save this performance. The lack of anything theatrical made me and my friends lose interest in the performance and made us confused about the events of the play. I guess if someone was studying Macbeth in school and went to see this play, it might have been somewhat useful, however, as a form of entertainment, this performance was not great.
Overall Rating: 3/10 – Flawed.
Recommendation: No
