The National Youth Theatre presents a modern and bold interpretation of the classic Shakespeare tragedy, Macbeth at the Garrick Theatre in London’s West-End. Be prepared to see Macbeth as a female lead character in this gender-fluid production.
As the director Natasha Nixon explains, the gender fluidity of the play comes from the cast: the major goal for her and production team was to ensure the perfect fit of actors to the roles regardless of their gender. It results in some changes in the script, and it definitely influences the perception of the play by the audience.
Shakespeare wrote Macbeth as a response to the political and social realities of the world in which he lived – the play reflects, questions and provokes. And that is exactly what we are doing with our production, says Natasha, and her words resonate a lot with the numerous headlines about the rise of feminism and women’s movements we’ve seen this year.
However, while the gender fluidity may provide interesting effects for contextual interpretation of the production and its modern framing, the text of Shakespeare’s play uses that archaic language, and here it seems to be in constant argument with modern vibes, from music to scenic movement, costumes and lighting, this performance shows the ancient events of the play as part of our modern routine.
Monologues by Shakespeare are genuine on a paper but often sound too long, complex, and unnatural from the actors on stage. It makes the whole performance unstable and the audience’s interest grows and falls down in waves: from monologue to a sudden change of set, from the discussion of the political situation to the nightmares and hallucinations.
The young actors, though, do great work at understanding this complex play and trying to share with us their intrinsic grasp of the text. Performances by the two lead characters, Macbeth (Olivia Dawd) and Lady Macbeth (Isabel Adomakoh Young), were strong and powerful in their most dramatic peaks; the scene of the nightmare for Lady Macbeth and the final battle for Macbeth.
However, the most memorable performances were delivered by the three witches (Aidan Cheng, Jeffrey Songalang, Simran Hunjun): everything was perfectly measured to hypnotize, scare and entertain the audience. Their constant presence helped to move the action and keep the scenes connected.
Overall, this Macbeth is an original take on one of the often difficult to interpret classics, and I may recommend it to fans of contemporary theatre, however, some of the modernisations seem unnecessary and don’t always work well in line with the original text.
