Is this a five star review I see before me? RSC’s Macbeth is ‘bloody’ brilliant

Leather jackets, frosted tips, Adidas trainers. We’re in a dark and smoky Glasgow pub and every man carries a knife in his pocket. The king’s crown takes its form as a gold signet ring. What could go wrong? On Macbeth’s October 21 press night, we settled into The Other Place’s intimate, bare-brick theatre, careful not to look at any one pub-goer the wrong way. 

Although we were initially surprised by the decision to perform well-known Macbeth at The Other Place, the smallest of the RSC’s Stratford theatres with a capacity of up to 200 seats, director Daniel Raggett pushes his drinking-den to its limits. The set accentuates Shakespeare’s calamitous plot, and further research reveals that the murderous mania of Macbeth is ingrained in the history of The Other Place. Raggett therefore nods to the Macbeth of 1979, which also took place in this small-scale theatre. Where Ian McKellen once murdered against a dark and sinister backdrop, Sam Heughan now settles into this Glasgow pub like a true regular.  

Not only is the sound and lighting an assault on the senses, but the physical closeness of the action gives the audience no choice but to open their eyes to the unflinching tragedy before them

The show quite literally starts with a bang, plunging us into an alarming blackout. Sinister soundscapes and the unrelenting whirring of ceiling fans continue on through the darkness. If there was any way to get an audience primed for a night of deceit and treachery, it was this. Not only is the sound and lighting an assault on the senses, but the physical closeness of the action gives the audience no choice but to open their eyes to the unflinching tragedy before them. The violence is indeed unpalatable, but also integral to the production, providing an emotional core rotten with revenge. We felt as though we too had to screw our courage to the sticking place and, as the line goes, we were not failed.  

In a recent episode of The One Show, as Heughan was preparing to captivate audiences with his Macbeth, he was presented with a message from RSC’s own legendary Macbeth of 1979, Sir Ian McKellen. His advice is as follows: “Your best friend in the play is not Banquo who you serve with on the battlefield, nor is your lovely wife who you go back to. No, your best friend is the audience.” Well, did Heughan show up for McKellen? These are big Shakespearean boots to fill – no doubt about that. In Macbeth’s intimate moments with the audience, when we are alone with him and no other character is in earshot, there is an integral vulnerability. Subtle fear creeps into his demeanor. Could it even be tenderness? “Are you a man?” Lady Macbeth asks. Heughan, who dominates the performance socially and physically, portrays a fine balance of outward confidence and inner conflict. When he holds out his signet ring ready to be kissed, his shaking fist and pleading eyes only hint at the true burden of Macbeth’s imposter-syndrome. Only the audience is privy to the full extent of the insecurity that plagues Macbeth. A commendable actor/audience dynamic indeed.  

“Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven-”  

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

“-or to hell.” 

Subtlety really is the name of the game in Raggett’s Macbeth. There is an intricacy in every shared glance between cast members. And, as Lia Williams takes on the ambitious Lady Macbeth, it really is all in the eyes. Lady Macbeth hunts the audience with a fierce, lingering stare. Williams owns her matriarch with an assured femininity, a welcome trait that slices through the man-centric atmosphere.  

Whilst I wouldn’t go so far as to say, ‘couple-goals’, the shared descent into madness was a particularly romantic one

The chemistry between Heughan and Williams is strong. The pairing itself? Strange. Other critics may perceive the 15 years that Williams holds over Heughan to be ill-fitting. But, as we know about Macbeth, power presents itself in weird ways. Opposing the age gap, one can’t help but notice the physical towering of Macbeth over Lady Macbeth. Whilst I wouldn’t go so far as to say, ‘couple-goals’, the shared descent into madness was a particularly romantic one.  

Banquo, played by Nicholas Karimi, is in his finest form when he is, well, dead. Bleeding from the neck and illuminated by a beam of red on an otherwise gloomy stage, the ghost of Banquo in Macbeth’s hallucination is truly haunting. Again, with eyes that held us and Macbeth in a maddened trance, Karimi’s performance is striking, and for these critics, faultless. As The Other Place holds performances in the round, it is hard to say if audience members behind Banquo in this chilling moment can feel the same impact we did as we faced him in his frozen glare. 

Whether your hands and mouth are duct-taped or you’re getting glassed in the back of the head, the violence takes on an innovative gang-style modernity

The brutal violence of the Shakespearean gangsters is satisfyingly contrasted by the chilling authority of the three witches. Dressed in equally grimy leather jackets, torn jumpers and heavy black eye makeup, Irene Macdougall, Eilidh Fisher and Alison Peebles join the other characters in their heavy smoking and extensive drinking, yet also feel as though they exist on a different plane completely. Their scenes transform the smoky opacity of the Glaswegian pub into an ethereal mist, equally threatening yet calmly assured. This avoids the repetitive violence of the play becoming too one-note, yet maintains the creeping suspense of Shakespeare’s plot. The ability of the witches to provide an entirely different atmospheric level to the play unexpectedly reinforces the gangster style violence, illustrated by the shocked gasps that punctuate the entire two hours and 30 minutes of performance. 

Other mastery from the cast is displayed especially in the pub-esque combat scenes. Fights that eventually fall into the bloodcurdling soundscape are shocking yet cinematically familiar. Whether your hands and mouth are duct-taped or you’re getting glassed in the back of the head, the violence takes on an innovative gang-style modernity. 

All that’s left to do is to ponder the question: is this a five-star review we see before us? Fear and suspense in this rendition are used with intention and meaning. Williams and Heughan are striking in scenes both apart and together, however the lingering and slightly distracting question of their compatibility disabled true immersion. On the cusp of ‘weird’, it’s hard to understand whether this was an intentionally mismatched casting, or a momentary lapse of judgement in pairing together of these stars. We will settle for a four-star review on this occasion and we thoroughly enjoyed this suspenseful, intelligent reworking of ‘The Scottish Play’. Macbeth is running at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon until December 6, so get down there: something spectacularly wicked this way comes.  

https://www.rsc.org.uk/macbeth/