Originally published by L.S. Media. September 26th 2012.
Cast: Harriet Barrow, Jamie Hampson, Richard Hand, Zoe Lister, Jack Lord, Shaun Mason, Jack Rigby, Michael Ryan, Adam Search.
L.S. Media Rating *****
Arguably Macbeth is one of the finest plays by William Shakespeare, it has been performed nearly all over the world and many times in the city of Liverpool. However, it has to be said, never, ever, like this and for that it became one of the most spellbinding and startling productions of any of the bards works to have ever been devised.
The Royal Court Theatre has held many special nights but this dramatic and incredibly intense version of Macbeth by the Lodestar Theatre Company as part of the Liverpool Shakespeare Festival has to be among the very best of the productions to have been staged within its walls.
From the start the audience is presented with the idea of the play but transported across 400 years and a couple of hundred miles to the desecrated sink estates of a alternative inner city where the gang culture has become the rule of law rather than being held at bay. In amongst the melee of random shootings and cocaine addiction stands man destined to be king. Macbeth has never had good press but his stock has fallen through the floor in this adaptation and portrayed by the excellent Michael Ryan, his unravelling and the fall he about to take is made so much worse by the gruesome aspect of modern criminal life. His King Pin ideal is nothing short of a wasted pawn.
The setting for the play added to the frustration and despair felt and it gained extra gravitas the further the play descended into Macbeth splitting psyche.
Every Macbeth needs his Lady Macbeth and in Zoe Lister, the fragility of ambition and cunning guile was shown at its very best.
The way the play was presented meant that the scene shifters were able to make a big impact on the way the play was viewed. As they skulked in the shadows and wearing the 21st century version of battle armour and hider of all sins, the ever reliable hooded top, they became a malevolent omni- present force watching the proceedings, helping it to go forward and play out and never intervening to stop Macbeth’s evil deed. This very visible addition made the dark play even grimmer spectacle.
An astonishing and particularly brilliant version of a man destroyed by over reaching ambition and corruptibility, you will never see Macbeth in the same way again.
Ian D. Hall