Don't be fooled by the brevity of Theatre Jezebel's new version of Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy.
Mary McCluskey's adaptation may be an hour long, but by putting the play's most fascinating character at its centre on Kenny Miller's expansively handsome set of upended gold leaf chairs topped by weather-beaten parasols in the mirrored gloom of a leaf-strewn courtyard, it's as panoramic as it's ever been. With the Weird Sisters top and tailing the play in black veils masking a blood-red satanic pallor as they become both chorus and every other character save the two leads, by the end it becomes clear who is pulling the strings.
Before all that, Lesley Hart's Lady M grows increasingly neurotic as power seems to first fall into her lap before the rough and tumble of fulfilling imagined prophecies becomes increasingly addictive. With Michael Moreland's Macbeth tugged every which way, both by his wife's newly discovered aspirations and the Sisters, McCluskey's production becomes one of the most spectrally inclined Shakespeares in recent years.
This effect is heightened by Ross Brown's shimmeringly atmospheric soundscape, which underscores proceedings like a BBC Radiophonic Workshop interpretation of Stockhausen. The monochrome slabs of Kate Bonney's lighting design completes a picture of corrupted glamour and other-worldly menace that suggest even more powerful forces than fate are at work.
Once Lady M is out of the picture, that's when things look set to get interesting, which the Sisters realigned: "When will we three meet again?" exchange points to. When they peer through their veils at the audience, you know they've more tricks up their sleeves yet.
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