MACBETH
Macbeth,
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland,
Glasgow
Neil Cooper
THE buckets of blood the Witches pour into a dustbin are the shape of things to come at the opening of Ali de Souza's unexpurgated take on Shakespeare's play of corrupted ambition. As the body count gets higher the supernatural trio are there in the background at every crucial moment; striking a pose like a goth dance troupe on Hallowe'en.
This is all too fitting in a production performed by second-year acting students in a brick-bare Chandler Studio Theatre. Such set-pieces emphasise the play's darkness, while keeping every scene intact clarifies much of its meaning. Other moments are at times a tad too overloaded, such as the John Coltrane soundtracked dinner paryt at which Brian Vernel's Macbeth loses the plot, but even here, Vernel, Tarjei Westby as Banquo and Rebecca King as Lady Macbeth sustain a steely intensity.
As Macduff and Duncan's uppercrust son Malcolm plot out their strategies on the king, the St. George's Cross flag pinned up on the wall suggests the reinstatement of colonial rule drives the battle as much as revenge. Comic relief comes via a cheeky but neatly realised gender switch when Meghan Tyler, who doubles as the First Witch, plays a particularly provocative Porter.
What really sets this production apart is the electric presence of Vernel. Black shirted, squaddie haired and flint-eyed with fury, his Macbeth is a very young man seriously out of his depth, whose new power makes him increasingly psychotic. It's a dagerously confident turn, full of muscle, guts and contemporary swagger. If this is what Vernel is capable of as a second year, the world should watch out, there's a storm coming your way.
REVIEW - The Herald
Photo by Tarjei Westby