Macbeth
By William Shakespeare
Ralph Fiennes Adaptation for Stage
Directed By Simon Godwin
Review By Lou at Bookmarks and Stages
Immersive and absolutely phenomenal performance starring:
Ralph Fiennes as Macbeth and Indira Varma as Lady Macbeth
That Scottish Play or The Play That Must Not be Named as Macbeth is often referred to was timely in Ingliston, near Edinburgh city centre since all eyes turn to Scotland in January. I got a ticket from my parents as part 1 of my birthday treat.
A play showing what the lust for power does to a person, how far they’ll go and the consequences. They’re enough to put you off murdering anyone. Macbeth is in the first folio of Shakespeare’s works, which is celebrating it’s 400 year anniversary.
Walk through the sounds and sights of what looks like a war scene, with smoke and lights. It is truly a fantastic way to enter the main auditorium that is almost a round, to continue the immersive feeling as every spare inch on and off stage is used.
There is a bit of a mix of a modern and (very nicely) a traditional feel, that’s very cleverly put together. The Shakespeare rhythm in speech is spot-on and feels authentic, all adding to this magnificent performance.
There’s a crack and the 3 witches appear. The audience goes silent and for the whole play, everyone is silent. Ralph Feinnes is Macbeth, appearing in battle gear and then we see Indira Varma as Lady Macbeth.
Until now, I had not seen either on stage, but I had on-screen and they acted their socks off.
Ralph Fiennes is fabulous as the bold and then very troubled Macbeth. Ralph Fiennes converged the light and dark seamlessly, even adding a little humour here and there, that worked rather well.
This is the best I’ve seen Indira Varma play a character. Shakespeare, perhaps suits her style. This play certainly does. She is steely, strong and controlled, until her character can’t keep it together anymore. She is very convincing in this transformation as the enormity of what they’ve done eats away.
Both give great monologues and it struck me that you could hear a pin-drop and all eyes were just on them. They had the audience in the palm of their hands, absorbing every single word and mannerism. This was powerful!
The 3 witches, full of mystique and mischief in the subconscious are deliciously mischievous and dark as they cackle away and say their spells.
All supporting cast were great, who you’d see now and again.
This performance got a well-deserved standing ovation at the end by everyone who could stand. It was that fantastic that it felt the most natural thing to do.
This is a production that is not to be missed. I was in awe from start, from the walkthrough to the end of the play. He seems to have a great love and admiration of Shakespeare and I loved that he looked outside the usual places, like the city centres to put on this production. He did what Shakespeare did. He took plays to little towns and suburbs, they weren’t solely shown in the centres. The place was absolutely packed out. A full-house with people coming from even across the border from England. It could be something that the creative arts could start considering, taking theatre and some big-named actors to places they aren’t normally expected to be. It could be an interesting future for theatre, to get people in. I spoke to people who didn’t really know where they were going had flocked in. This was special and something that would be wonderful to be replicated for this play and other plays. Ralph Fiennes took a gamble and it truly paid-off.
I would advise you to eat beforehand. These are pop-up venues with pop-up bars with some drinks and some crisps and chocolates, which are unfortunately, some of the most expensive I’ve ever seen. Apart from that, it is a very well-organised affair by The Underbelly, with great customer service too. It’s worth getting to the venue earlier as it was lovely to witness the socialisation of people, strangers all mingling together.
The Underbelly are one of the companies, renowned for hosting fabulous performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is held for the entire month of August, every year. They have become synonymous with their, rather fun, upside-down purple cow symbol.
Bookmarks and Stages by Lou 