Tag Archives: Macbeth

Writer: William Shakespeare Directors: Ben Horslen and John Risebero Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Macbethis such a difficult play to get right and with so many elements to marshal, the overall effect can often drain the play of its dramatic energy. Macbethis an intensely psychological play, one that must chart the non-linear progress of the anti-hero while considering the agency of the ...

Writer: Joe Bennett Directors: Adrian Rawlins/Mike Friend Lighting: Mike Friend Set Design: Ed Ullyart Reviewer: Ron Simpson East Riding Theatre at Beverley gets far less attention than it deserves. Maybe the comfortable, welcoming, but rough-hewn, adaptation of a church as a theatre and the largely volunteer staff disguise what a professionally capable organization it is. Maybe there is an assumption ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director & Adaptor: Erica Schmidt Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers The politics of being a preteen girl are dark, complex, and can feel like life-or-death stakes are involved. Whispers and rumors fuel hormone-charged energies and create tension and high drama. So it stands to reason that Red Bull Theater’s production of MacBeth, ably adapted and directed by Erica Schmidt, ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Adaptation:  Helen Jeffery Director: Daniel Taylor Reviewer: Matt Forrest Following on from last year’s successful productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet at the Epstein Theatre, they once again have turned to the bard to welcome in the spring with something far more sinister; Macbeth. “The Scottish play” is as revered as Hamlet and King Lear and ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Celeste Moratti Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers As a Shakespearean standard, Macbeth is one of the best-known plays in the English-speaking canon. Even watching the most avant-garde, esoteric interpretation of the play, the footholds of plot and character are so culturally prevalent that it is difficult to get lost, which makes First Maria Ensemble’s relatively straightforward presentation of ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Rufus Norris Reviewer: Lu Greer The National Theatre’s Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s most popularly retold plays, tells the story of the aftermath of a ruinous civil war and the Macbeths being inexorably pulled towards the crown by forces of darkness. The tone of the show is evident immediately from the set which is dominated by an ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Rufus Norris Reviewer: Dominic Corr Despite its notoriety as the pinnacle of the theatrical world, few can adapt the Bard's words well. We all know the tale, or at least we boast about knowing it. Macbeth is far from a straightforward production. A step to the left and it becomes dreary, dank and uninteresting. A tad ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Rufus Norris Reviewer: Joan Phillips Raven-black and using the full depth of Theatre Royal Plymouth's deep stage, designer Rae Smith's cavernous, almost subterranean set, ominously establishes the doomed atmosphere that permeates throughout the National Theatre's production of Macbeth. A huge arched bridge descends sharply to the front of the stage at floor level, and ascending to ...