La Libre, Belgium
by Philip Tirard, 24 September 2009

With Macbeth, until the very end of his night

Shakespeare's tragedy of regicide is a theatrical vision of hell on earth...
Declan Donnellan premiers his new production in Namur...

Without a doubt, Macbeth is the darkest, shortest, leanest and most austere of all of Shakespeare's tragedies. Based on Scottish history, the plot is easily summed up. A worthy warrior, Macbeth receives honours and a one-night visit from the king to his castle. Having received a prophesy which predicts he will be king one day, he decides with his wife to murder the king. Having become a bloodthirsty tyrant, the usurper is finally toppled and killed by the English forces.

Shakespeare seems interested in depicting the rise of evil, the vicious circle of murder and the voluntary damnation of a soul. Director Declan Donnellan focuses on Macbeth's waking nightmares: 'Shakespeare does not intend to put an inhuman monster in the stocks. Instead, he wants to make us feel what takes place in the heart and brain of a bold man, who transgresses all the limits.'

This is precisely what one experiences during the two feverish, intense, and breathless hours of the performance. In the manner of Peter Brook, Declan Donnellan strips his stage bare and keeps only what is indispensible. The author of The Actor and the Target is, above all, a fantastic director of actors. He deliberately leaves it entirely up to them to tell the play.

Almost threadbare, the design and costumes by Nick Ormerod support those intentions. There is a definite Spartan feel in this Macbeth: no daggers, no blood-soaked shirts. In order to conjure them up, language and movement are paramount. More than in any other Cheek by Jowl production, the choral and choreographic elements are raised to new levels. The ‘poetry of evil' spreads its wings like a macabre ballet.

The witches remain in the shadows, stiff, still, breathing like ancient-tongued mouths of the night. They pronounce their ironic and deathly oracles against a background of ghostly whispers and creakings. Here the supernatural apparitions are the projections of unconscious urges made manifest. With his warm but throaty voice, Will Keen as Macbeth holds your attention from the very start, and keeps us fascinated for the remaining two hours. Anastasia Hille, as Lady Macbeth, is just as captivating, even if her voice occasionally drops. There is something undoubtedly sexual and hallucinatory in her reckless determination to "do the deed".

The rest of the cast give their all, creating an incandescent portrayal of the torments of humanity pushed to the extremes. After two hours (in English with surtitles) the audience at the première enthusiastically applauded a company on the verge of physical exhaustion for a solid six minutes. The spent and bowing actors had successfully performed a ritual, a tremendous combination of exorcism and collective catharsis.