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Show: Macbeth
Society: Dulwich Players
Venue: Kingswood Arts
Credits: William Shakespeare
Type: Sardines
Author: Caroline Jenner
Performance Date: 01/11/2023
Macbeth
Caroline Jenner | 02 Nov 2023 21:45pm
Photo: Dulwich Players
Kingswood House was built in 1811 as a private home and passed through a number of hands before being acquired in the 1950s along with the surrounding land and properties, by the local council. Its recent resurrection as an arts centre serves Dulwich Players well with their production of Macbeth, as sweeping staircases and minstrels galleries help to provide unusual opportunities for interesting staging and multiple entrances and exits. To that end the space is used extremely effectively with witches appearing on the balcony and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking, candle in hand, down the staircase as well as a great moment in the second half where Macbeth’s enemies stand along the staircase watching his gradual mental decline as more and more messengers bring him bad news. The acting space itself is fairly small and the simplicity of set with various crates being used as tables and chairs also helps keep the stage uncluttered.
As with most Shakespeare plays these days some judicious pruning has been made to ensure that the audience are not still in their seats at midnight. Macbeth is in fact one of Shakespeare’s shorter plays and I am not convinced that all the cuts are necessary or that some of the sections retained are really necessary for the audience understanding. This is a company that appreciates the rhythm of the language and their delivery is excellent, however by cutting, for example, large chunks of Act 4 Scene 3 where Malcolm and Macduff meet to discuss the downfall of Scotland, but retaining a small section of Malcolm lying about his sinful proclivities, we lose the gradual build up of faults in Malcolm that helps us understand Macduff’s outraged cry of ‘Fit to be king! No, a person like that is not fit to live.’ which no amount of good delivery can compensate for. Better to cut the whole section and leave in more of the witches’ scene round the cauldron, which Macbeth aficionados know and love. Why leave in the tedious scene with Lady Macduff and her annoying son, or the long winded porter’s speech which adds little to the plot, but cut three lines from the opening scene. Possibly because these scenes provide actors with parts? Perhaps in truth no one who knows a play well will ever be happy with someone else’s cuts as they are bound to remove a line you know and love.
Another questionable addition was the sound effects. Rain and fires crackling and music underscoring various moments were more of a distraction than an enhancement and were not needed.  As already mentioned this company are very capable and their delivery did more than enough to set the scenes and create atmosphere, however the pruning down of the scenes means that we have little opportunity to really see relationships develop between characters such as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, Macbeth and Banquo, so some of their scenes lose poignancy, particularly the final Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’ speech following Lady Macbeth’s death. Her role as the force behind the throne is never established strongly enough and despite a powerfully delivered monologue declaring Duncan will rue the day he enters Glamis Castle, Jude Benning never really made me believe that Lady Macbeth’s relationship with her husband was strong enough for her to manipulate him into killing a king.
The flawed Macbeth, played by Mark Kelleher, needs to tread a fine line between trying to do the right thing and his desire for kingship. Perhaps this indecision needs to be a little more evident at the outset with the witches so that there is room for more light and shade in the character and all motivation is not simply played out through soliloquys. One scene that is particularly effective in this production is the banquet, which was performed in two halves either side of the interval. The concept of having the ghost of Banquo appearing in the first half and then the empty chair in the second half was a brilliant way of making the audience question whether Macbeth was genuinely seeing ghosts or just figments of his tortured imagination. Kelleher’s performance maintained the driving energy of the speeches, particularly the monologues, whilst still pointing key words and phrases as he moves swiftly from nervous ambition to psychopath.
There are many strong performances in this production particularly noteworthy are Peter Tilly as the nervous doctor anxious to be away from Inverness and Hannah Tomlinson as Banquo, the unfortunate second in command to Macbeth. However, as an ensemble they create great energy and pace, keeping the audience engaged with the action and moving the inevitable forwards at a rollicking pace.
A well directed production that runs in Kingswood Arts Centre’s Great Hall until 4 November.