Macbeth
The Musical
Adult content
advisory
The tale of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is well-known by many.What led him to go from an honourable and decorated soldier to a murderer? This is a Musical that explores those affected and looks into their descent into madness. Leading to the deaths of Banquo, Lady Macbeth and finally Macbeth himself but the twist being, how did those actions affect those around him and how they viewed the consequences? A comical undertone look on the absurdity thought the eyes of our characters as puppets.
Show Dates
September 3rd - 19:30
September 4th - 19:30
September 5th - 19:30
September 6th- 19:30
September 7th- 14:30
September 7th - 19:30
Venue
The White Bear Theatre
138 Kennington Park Road
London
SE11 4DJ
Cast
Creative Team
General Manager/HR
Stefan Potiuk
Musical Director
Co-Composer
Sally Hardcastle
Set Consultant
Ruth Nicolas
Co-Writer
Alice Catanzaro
Deputy
Stage Manager
REVIEWS
★★★★½
This is a very very funny and very relevant show from Stage Splinters. I loved the witches and the rapping, the original words and music.
The four-strong cast were all equally multi-talented and excellent puppeteers. Elliott Moore portrayed a very impressionable and laid-back Macbeth to Eloise Jones’s ambitious and manipulative Lady M. The other Shakespearean characters took more of a back seat whilst the servants Rose (Bryony Reynolds - who also played King Duncan), and Conleth (Red Picasso – who also played Macduff and Banquo) established their own sub plots and used their inferior positions in the Macbeth household to commentate on what was going on. I know Macbeth – the play – is a tragedy but it was acted out in such a tongue-in-cheek and ironic way, that I found Rose’s tale a bit jarring, although it was sung superbly by Reynolds.
Co-writers Chuma Emembolu, who also directed the show, and Ruth Nicolas’ interpretation of the story made light of the murder and violence contained in the original plot but wanted the audience to be seriously shocked and appalled by Rose being sold into servitude by her father and later raped by Macduff. This was the only part of this very clever production that didn’t sit well with me. I appreciate that the juxtaposition of comedy and tragedy is very much part of how Shakespeare both diffused and reinforced the darkness in his plays, and this version transported the Macbeths and their entourage into the twenty-first-century. But with singing puppets?
REVIEWED BY DEBORAH JEFFERIS
★★★
Eloise Jones’ Lady Macbeth is formidable, she is a powerful and expressive performer displaying beautiful intricacies in her physicality and demeanour. Whilst Elliott Moore’s comedic timing shines, he is a smart and emphatic actor. Alongside them, Bryony Reynolds and Red Picasso are exceedingly dexterous performers, able to instantaneously switch between personas whilst adding a vividness to their delivery.
Reynold’s Rose, the servant girl is an especially enchanting character, delivered beautifully and brilliantly written/directed.
REVIEWED BY AMY COOPER
The songs are clever, varied and apt. The script is littered with so many knowing asides that you find yourself wondering what’s left for them to be aside from.
The production works though, because for all the contemporary references, knowing jokes and meta-comedy, the performers do all the work. This isn’t a production that relies on a kind of implicit collaboration from the audience like some modern comedies. It just whips us through with pace, energy, and smarts.
The singing is delivered with gusto, through the strongest performance is the most subdued, two heartrending (and thoroughly non-comic) songs about the brutal lot of a servant girl in mediaeval Scotland.
It’s surprises like that that lift this play above the ordinary, and make it well worth seeing.
REVIEWED BY THOS