He also channels uncontrolled distress that stretches the verse to the point of medieval torture: “Let this daaay stand aaaye accuuuursed in the calendaaaaaaaar!”Ī lone moment of restraint prevails when Macbeth learns of his wife’s death. Shammas delivers an unhinged, almost gleefully vicious tyrant rather than a war hero who succumbs to moral corruption and a creeping desensitisation to violence. It’s a strategic error to over-emote early on as Macbeth.įear and paranoia drive the character, but you don’t want to be literally throwing yourself around the stage by the banquet scene.īesides, Macbeth isn’t a narcissistic monster like Richard III – he has a conscience, he’s capable of love, he knows exactly what he’s doing to himself as he wades into atrocity – that’s part of the tragedy. Superstition surrounds the Scottish play, though even if everyone involved in this Bell Shakespeare production had refused euphemism and screamed “Macbeth!” from the tops of their lungs 1000 times, it would hardly account for so doomed a version as this. THEATRE Macbeth ★★ Bell Shakespeare, Arts Centre Melbourne, until May 14
These include jauntily arranged and ornamented children’s rhymes (you’ll never hear Hot Cross Buns or Goosey Goosey Gander the same way again), rousing folk and drinking songs, and more melancholy fare such as Haydn’s She Never Told Her Love, set to immortal lines from Twelfth Night.īy Jane’s Hand embodies the spirit of the amateur in the best sense – the performance is constructed almost as a transient shrine to the love of Austen’s work – and it doesn’t waste a moment of your time.
All performers are trained musicians, and the many songs interwoven throughout feature harp, keyboard, violin, and other instruments, as well as some delightful a cappella roundelays and harmonies. While the acting doesn’t attempt much nuance, musical refinement makes up for it.
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