Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Tuesday 3rd August 2021.
Welcome to Independent Scotland. No one in Adelaide could do any
Macbeth as well as Matt Hyde does this one. He is handsome, certainly, athletic, capable of springing onto the banquet table, and he delivers his great soliloquies, front and centre on the red tilted square that overlays the stage of the Goodwood Theatre, with operatic bravura. His physical movement underscores an approach to the text in which words are hammered out. It's a mannerism, sure, but one which enhances the aggressive mindset of the thane who would be king.
He is so charismatic, it's sometimes hard to see past and appreciate the work of the rest of the cast, assembled with the Independent Theatre blend of experienced performers and young actors, in this case very young actors, at the start of their lives on stage.
Enter the other Macbeth. Rebecca Kemp brings authority to the role as the co-conspirator and her collapse into madness is a highlight of the play.
Inevitably, David Roach plays the fated king Duncan and, in a character point, his white robes striped with purple are both imperial and ecclesiastical. The three weird sisters, weird indeed in rags and demented wigs, have the time of their eldritch lives. Pam O'Grady, Lyn Wilson, and Emma Bleby have such energy, and the scene in which Macbeth consults them for the last time is magical with puppets and visions. I noted that their faces weren't obscured with makeup, but two of them turn up later as respectable Scottish ladies. There is the usual strong support from Steve Turner, as Banquo, and Shedrick Yarkpai, as Macduff. There's a whole gazetteer of Scotland with the various thanes, and I wondered if their garish plaids were one way of telling them apart.
The play is told without interval, approximately two and a quarter hours, with some judicious cuts; most of the Porter's scene for instance, and the character of Hecate. Shakespeare's words are clearly delivered and Rob Croser has brought his theatrical imagination to some illuminating insights and images.
Adelaide audiences are so used to the quality that Independent delivers that bookings were heavy from the start of the run and, indeed, as I write, the extended season is almost booked out.
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