MACBETH: A CONJURING (Globe Theatre)*****

 

By Aashiq

Link: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/macbeth-a-conjuring-2020/ Standard £15, members £12, Concessions £5

Available until: 11^th November 2020, 12.59pm

In case you’re wondering about the title, this is still Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It’s filmed in a smallish, rectangular room, which is lit with candles. You could actually describe this performance as a sort of séance, with (most of) the cast of the Globe’s 2018 production of Macbeth resurrected for this reading.

The actors who are ‘onstage’ are inside the room, either standing or sitting on stools. The offstage actors are in the ‘wings’ just outside the room, watching the action, their eyes just visible above their masks, which are removed when it’s their turn to act (except on a few occasions where it makes sense for the characters to be masked). Social distancing is maintained for all but the actors who are married in real life.

It works extremely well. The room, also used for the Globe’s other online Halloween offering, Deep Night, Dark Night, makes an attractive stage and although the characters are using scripts, they have sufficient familiarity with their roles – even two years later – to look at their fellow actors rather than burying their heads in their scripts. The scripts are large (printed on A4 and placed in a binder), but surprisingly unobtrusive. I’d be dropping mine all over the place (once, in a rehearsed reading, my script e x p l o d e d over the stage, but luckily, I’d co-written the thing so I knew it well enough to keep going and no-one blamed me, which was even better), but these actors make the scripts look like part of their costumes.

Paul Ready is an incredible Macbeth. (Attractive too. Does anyone else still get that instinctive ‘ooh, I hope he’s gay’ thought before remembering you’re married and everyone’s off-limits? Anyway, he’s not. Gay, I mean. He’s married to Lady Macbeth. In real life. No, I’m sure they’ve never done anything like that.) Paul reads the text wonderfully and portrays Macbeth’s emotions perfectly, but I also like him because of the way Macbeth changes throughout the play. We see a hint of Evil Macbeth at the start when he’s so interested in the idea of being King, but it’s a dream at that point and he needs to be nagged into it. Later, Paul manages to convince us he’s actually not that bad and when he does turn murderer, he emphasises Macbeth’s psychological instability and his desperation and it’s genuinely sad to watch him making everything worse and worse. But the spiral continues as his rage and hatred rises against anyone who gets in his way and by the end, he’s consumed by his obsession.

Michelle Terry – who also directed the film, alongside original stage director Rob Hastie - gives an extraordinary performance as Lady Macbeth. Her final scene in particular is remarkable. Throughout the play, she finds new meanings in the text which I don’t remember seeing before. She even made me laugh. Her fainting after Duncan’s body was discovered was obviously a “STFU, Macbeth!” moment. There are no other Shakespearean performers like her.

As this production took place after Michelle was appointed artistic director of the Globe, she probably had some say in casting and some very good choices were made: there are a lot of really strong performances from this cast, most of whom play several roles. Joseph Marcell’s Duncan is noble and affable and Philip Cumbus’ Banquo is a lovely guy – and also a very intelligent and watchful one. This gave his scenes an added intensity even though I knew he would never have the opportunity to accuse and expose Macbeth. Kit Young’s Malcolm is very well-characterised: he seems (understandably) young and bewildered to begin with, but he returns with a bit more maturity and gains in stature as the play continues. Anna-Maria Nabirye’s stage presence ensures Macduff is a stronger presence than usual early on and doesn’t appear out of nowhere the way he usually seems to. There’s also an incredibly intense scene with Kirsty Rider as the Gentlewoman and Philip Cumbus as the Doctor.

There was also a really poignant line which appeared onscreen at the beginning of the play. ‘In 2020 there was a pandemic’. Past tense. I think we’re all looking forward to saying that. (Of course, we’ll then have to deal with questions like: ‘If it was in 2020, why is it COVID-19?’ ‘If the first cases were in 2019, why do we say the pandemic was in 2020?’ Or we could all just, you know, not have any kids…)