I have been a fan of Macbeth since grade 7 - which was back in about 1968. My buddy Hugh and I got grabbed by three girls in our Junior high drama class - Calder Junior High, Edmonton Alberta. I think that Hugh and I were classic rednecks. For the life of me, I can not remember the name of the three girls.
Looking back on it, I am pretty sure that the girls had already awakened to the interesting biological changes which occur about then. But we had not. I think we likely blew a good opportunity. Darn! Anyway, we did the witch scene - act 4 scene 1For the life of me, I do not remember if I was Lenix or Macbeth, but I do know that is when I fell in love with the play.
At various points in the last 40 years, I have seen the "Scottish Play" on film (Sir L.O.), studied in in high school, read it because I wanted to read it, talked about it who knows how many
times,but I have never seen it on stage.
So, in the fall of 2008 when my wife Kim and I found out that Macbeth was in the 2009 schedule for Stratford, it was not open for debate – we bought tickets – and I started looking forward to it.
When I read J. Kelly Nestruck's review - “A Macbeth neither fair nor foul ”, and found his review sort of in the “Nah” category, I went to the production this weekend bit prepared to find it weak. But, I have to say, I 100% enjoyed it.
- I agree, it would have been better to see some more passion between Mr. & Mrs. M – but I thought that Colm Feore and Yanna McIntosh got it – the passion showed and by the end of Act 1 – I was comfortable that the central theme was established. It would have been nicer if it was a little hotter, but I felt it was there.
- I thought the mid-20th century staging worked. I think that it did not matter where in our globalized world it occurred – the whole treatment of violence as theme that comes forward from 1109 all the way to 2009 worked.
- I admit, I got confused a couple a couple of time trying to tie the staging to my memory of the play – but overall – I got it – and I think people who know either a little or a lot about the play will get it
- I thought that both the flag reference to England's take-over of Scotland, and the “generic bunker with static-filled television screens” worked. The first gave us the true historic context – the second played nicely into the reality of the 20th century staging – Bravo!
So, to sum it all up, two thumbs way up. And, I am looking forward to seeingJulius Caesar this fall.
