Creation Theatre present 'Macbeth'

By Helena Payne

How do you distinguish yourself in the heavily saturated arena of summer open-air collegiac Shakespeare? Creation Theatre has certainly answered that question with streaming colours with this season’s production of Macbeth. With bold directorial and stylistic choices this is a Macbeth that demands and earns an active engaged audience. Ingenious and creative multi-rolling teamed with panoramic use of Lady Margaret Hall’s sweeping façade make this an experience like no other. The striking lighting states and atmospheric soundscapes frame and support memorable text driven performances. This is an ambitious Macbeth that pushes the boundaries of what to expect from the format and poses more questions than it answers.

The centenary of the outbreak of the First World War has been at the front of everyone’s consciousness of late. You cannot switch on the television or listen to the radio without chancing upon a commemoration or programme connected with the topic. Clearly it was through this lens that Jonathon Holloway perceived the striking backdrop of Lady Magaret Hall in Oxford. The French Renaissance style architecture of the 17th century building has been interpreted as an austere Sanatorium supposedly a few miles from the frontline. The plot then becomes the fragmented visions and dreams of the suffering patients. Opening up the play to this incredibly liberal rendering makes for beautiful and harrowing images but also perhaps detracts from empathising with the character’s stories as real.

The layout of the audience arranged round circular tables topped with eerie black candelabra feels unusual and contributes to the ambience as that of a séance rather than a performance. Six sheer black flags ripple gently in the breeze on a slightly raised bank.The Sound in this production was truly exceptional. Before the action started there was an eerie growling and rumbling that resonated around the space and we immediately felt tipped into the action. Other moments that really landed were the hair-raising cries of a blitz siren; a noise that still seems to unsettle and make you feel like you want to crouch in fear. Tables shook and thundered during the banquet scene and giving the actors microphones enabled them to use effective vocal techniques including heavy breathing that added texture to the already beautifully layered soundscapes. The lighting was equally striking; red bathed the ghostly front of the hall and flickered as if fuses were being blown due to paranormal activity. The combined effect was incredibly chilling, we didn’t know what to expect next.

Feeling as if we were well and truly on the back foot extended itself to the staging. Every inch of the vast stage was used. Drunken porters stumbled through the audience, the action chased through the many entrances and exits and Macbeth even howled from the roof five stories high in the sweeping wind. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth established their tower in a window on the second floor of the building to the right of the action. It served as an intimate nest where they seemed to plot their dark deeds. However, being in such close proximity to each other during these pivotal power play scenes we perhaps missed any physical manifestation of the struggle between them. It was not clear who was the instigator, who the follower and if indeed these roles were subject to flux and change. Saying that, the cast all committed truthfully to the text; Scott Ainslie is a psychotic and domineering Macbeth, reveling in his descent into depravity. His devil Queen played by Laura Murray is cold and calculating but becomes a pitifully unhinged victim of her own ambition; rather than rub, she literally tears at her own hands to remove her guilt to the horror of her physician and the audience alike. With five actors this is a lean cast, they all multi-role extremely well making strong character choices to illustrate the story. None do this better than Simon Spencer-Hyde who ricochets from playing shellshock victims, children, Banquo and MacDuff with clarity and panache. There is exceptionally creative staging including using the sheer flags as veils to denote witches, gas masks and some disturbing puppeteering of each other. I particularly enjoyed the beautifully stylised fight sequences but found some of the other physical moments opaque.

This Macbeth focuses on violence and in particular seems to pose the question: what happens to the mind when it goes through extreme violence? The strong WW1 lens illustrates as much as it obscures with regard to this fairly hefty subject. Holloway seems to suggest that the true catastrophe of any conflict is that it simply begets more violence. This seemed apparent from the portrayal of Malcolm by Christopher York. In no way did we expect a reign of peace and plenty after Macbeth’s deposition, merely another tyrant in waiting, preparing to flex his juvenile muscles. There were absolutely no moments of levity, the porters stripped of all mirth left the rest of the action to hurtle like a juggernaut toward its bloody conclusion. In that vein, this Macbeth did not subscribe to other Shakespeare tragedies which often derive their tragedy from the missed opportunities and miscommunication. This production was self-awaredly damned from the off, and this was supported by the spooky sound and lighting. It was a chilling evening, that has seared its images into my memory, this was a Macbeth like no other, and I am unlikely to forget it.

****

Creation Theatre's Macbeth plays at Lady Margaret Hall until September 13th 2014

To book tickets click here.

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