MACBETH (Shake-Scene Shakespeare)*****

 

By Megan

Link: https://www.patreon.com/shakesceneshakespeare

Available until: Unknown. If you can’t find it, you could try again another time because they do come back.

Shake-Scene’s production of Macbeth is very inventive and very emotional. Zoom theatre has been happening for nearly a year now and a lot of companies are producing special effects which are getting more and more impressive and it’s really great to watch but I think there is still a lot to say for productions that keep it fairly simple.

Shake-Scene’s Macbeth had a few lighting effects for the supernatural moments and not much else and it was still a really brilliant production. I hope I don’t sound rude about the bigger special effects which other companies do because they really are wonderful but productions like this remind you that the biggest power comes from Shakespeare’s beautiful language. If you can’t do anything really big or you don’t want to that’s okay because it is still possible to put on a really great production. I think there is a place for all kinds of productions in the online theatre world. Especially when they’re as good as this one.

The lighting effects are really good. The ghosts and apparitions are creepy and disturbing and a lot of it comes from the acting. In some ways they’re scarier when they’re simple because you’re not thinking “Wow! How do they do that?”, you’re just thinking “Aaargh, it’s a ghost!”

The Witches are really good too. Someone (it might be Lizzie Conrad-Hughes, the director and Book Holder) had a really brilliant idea. Usually the Witches only appear in a few scenes but in this production they appeared in lots of other scenes too like when Lady Macbeth receives Macbeth’s letter about the Witches. The Witches don’t say anything when they don’t have any lines scripted but they just sort of sit there on the screen, watching the action and maybe controlling it too. It’s like the opposite of having an angel watching over you. It’s really scary in a really good way. I love it!

I also liked that the Witches are all different. Geraldine Brennan is a really spooky witch, she has really interesting lighting and she sort of sits there and stares. Elizabeth Huxley has a sort of otherworldly sort of effect and I love the way she moves. Bridget Randolph is the fun witch who really enjoys being evil. Lucia Lumbard is really good as Hecat too.

It is also a really emotional play because it is a tragedy and so many bad things happen. I always forget how many people die just because they get in Macbeth’s way. Some of the characters who die are hardly in it really but the actors in this production created personalities for all of them and that made it even sadder because I liked the characters.

Valentina Vinci plays Lady Macbeth and her performance really brings out the tragedy in the play. At the start she is quite an overpowering person and she is really in control and calm and she knows what she’s doing. But after Duncan dies she is really anxious, it really hits her what she and Macbeth have done and right from that moment you can see things getting worse and worse for her. She keeps it together at the meal where Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost but after everyone’s gone she kind of drops the mask and you can see how much she’s suffering. Murder is really terrible and it was her idea more than Macbeth’s but I still sympathised with her.

Matt Williams plays Macbeth and I really like his performance. It is very interesting because he really made me think about how weak Macbeth is. He thinks about doing things but he usually only does them when he’s pushed by another person or because he feels like he has no choice. This is probably one reason why he is so good in battles, he obeys orders really well and he follows King Duncan’s orders and he becomes really respected. Then Lady Macbeth gets him to do the murder and after that I think he is scared of being caught so he does everything he can to save himself. But he’s not very good at planning things by himself, he is better at following orders so when he is trying to organise murders and things by himself he gets in a mess. Mr Williams shows this part of Macbeth’s character really well.

I really liked how Malcolm was characterised too. Hannah Harris shows how he changes through the play. First he is quite tough and he doesn’t get affected by things but then Duncan dies and that really throws him. When he comes back he has got himself together a bit but he has been changed by everything and he is more human. I also like how Simon Balcon shows two sides of Duncan, the chatty man who talks to his friends and the King who leads Scotland.

There are lots of really good emotional moments. Lady Macduff can seem quite unkind but Claire Richardson really shows how hurt she is, even if she has got things a bit wrong. Larissa Oates who plays lots of really different roles and is good in all of them makes Young Macduff into a really intelligent boy who really thinks about things. Tim Klotz is really good with Macduff’s reaction to the sad news and then you see it driving him on.

I can’t mention everyone but I love the way Fergus Rattigan plays Ross, he does a lot of running around giving people news but Mr Rattigan shows how hard it is to deliver bad news. Abey Bradbury from the Cream Faced Loons only has very small roles but she is always so good to watch. I also like how Mark Cassidy performed the updated Porter’s role. I think it’s not just the Witch who can see into the future! He knows about the current political situation and he watches TV. It’s very clever.

This is a really enjoyable (and sad and scary) production of Macbeth. I think it would be a good one to watch if you are studying Macbeth for GCSE.