Lady Macbeth was another challenging role in the play. When she walked on the stage she looked the part, her height and stature made her appear to be a tall, powerful woman especially compared to Macbeth’s height. However, it was very disappointing when she opened her mouth. She kept the same tone in her voice as she read her lines, like when she read the letter in act one scene 5 she didn’t change her tone of voice which became quite tedious, she didn’t have very much volume in her voice and it was very hard to understand what she was saying. She really undelivered the role of Lady Macbeth she did not show the change from the strong, powerful woman to the weak, mentally disturbed woman. Some of the most important scenes for Lady Macbeth like Act 1, Scene 5 when Lady Macbeth calls upon dark forces to make her pure evil to make Macbeth become King
“…Come, you spirits that tend on moral thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty…”
and the lead up to Act 5, Scene 1 when Lady Macbeth has mental health problems because of the acts Macbeth and her have done and kills herself
“Out dammed spot! Out, I say!…”
were not acted very well. It takes a very talented actress to take on the roll of Lady Macbeth and perhaps the director chose the wrong person for the part.
The costumes were excellent, particularly those of the witches. I felt the witches were shown very well. There were 3 symbols representing the witches each time they were on stage, these worked very well as the audience knew the witches were coming every time the symbols appeared. The witches wore masks and had voices with special effects which were pre-recorded, they were scary and created a really ghostly and frightening atmosphere. All this together was very effective.
The Long Overdue Theatre in their production of Macbeth only had 7 actors and 38 characters therefore many of the actors had to play a number of different rolls. This could become very confusing at times as at one stage Banquo was killed and a few scenes later the actor that played Banquo returned back on the stage to play the doctor, this confused members of the audience. I feel they would have been better casting enough people to play all the parts.
The Long Overdue theatre company had a very good idea to have a narrator In the play. There isn’t a narrator in the original text but I felt that it worked very well, he helped keep the audience in touch with what was happening. He was also acting at times and although his acting was admirable I think this was a bad idea as it was confusing. However, he told the story as the play went along. It is very hard to understand Shakespeare’s language so it was good to have him as someone who did not understand could listen to the narrator who helped the audience understand the play a bit better.
At the beginning of the play two dragons appeared and started fighting, this represented the battle scene at the beginning of the play. I felt this was a good opening. It drew the audiences attention and the audience sat in anticipation wondering what was going to happen next. It was full of movement and colour which was exciting to watch. Many symbolic themes of Macbeth are applicable to all cultures.
The music at the start of the play, during the battle scene was also very dramatic and this told us that something very dramatic was happening. If anyone wasn’t sure what the dragons represented they could have guessed from the music throughout the play which also helped to bring about the creepy atmosphere.
The battle scenes throughout the play I felt were done very well, they used the set well there was good sound and movement which built up a great excitement with the audience.
Overall I feel the “Long overdue theatre company’s” production of Macbeth was very enjoyable. There were aspects of it however which I would have changed like casting and acting direction. However, I really liked the way the play was portrayed. It was overall an enjoyable performance and I would recommend it to anyone who likes Macbeth.
