By Jake Freeman
One of Shakespeare’s most famous and most acclaimed pieces of work is now being retold with plenty of nuances. Macbeth (An Undoing) is the retelling of the classic Scottish play that puts the iconic Lady Macbeth at the heart of the story. When her husband returns victorious from the battlefield with a prophecy that he is to become King of Scotland, Lady Macbeth will stop at nothing to make their darkest ambition a reality.
Macbeth (An Undoing) is written by Scottish playwright Zinnie Harris, renowned for her feminist reworkings of theatrical classics and revising female characters from those plays for a more contemporary and sympathetic eye. Among these adaptations include, This Restless House, The Duchess (of Malfi) and Miss Julie. Her adaptation of Macbeth revisits Lady Macbeth as a ‘complex woman intoxicated by love, power and maternal longing; a woman out of time, fighting against the constraints of medieval patriarchy.’
In recent years, there has been a rise for female focused theatre shows, as well as feminist retellings. To name a few, Six the Musical, a modern adaptation of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII. Cinderella, also a contemporary take of the tale. Closer to home, Emilia, a feminist retelling of poet and writer Emilia Bassano and Shakespeare’s peer and alleged inspiration to many of his female characters.
The show is in unconventional in a few ways. Firstly, it is combination of both the original Shakespeare’s play with some of the original dialogue, in a non-linear style with Zinnie Harris version and modern-day dialogue, localised for an Australian audience. Secondly, some of the characters have been moved around; where one had a larger role, has now been minimised.
The most interesting aspect of the production is the set. Designed by Dann Barber, an enormous rotating stage, cleverly depicting an 11th century cold grey castle, complete with thrones, candles, goblets and chamber pots. The stage setup allowed the actors to remain on the move throughout. This was an effective and creative technique of telling the story. The actors could move freely between the interconnected rooms of various sizes. This was a nice change from the usual theatre setup.
Although an interesting experience, it has become ad nauseam when there is tinkering with a classic story like Macbeth to make it meaningful for a contemporary audience. I was also very put off with the frequent use of coarse language spoken throughout the show. This was especially felt when the actors quoted some of the original quotes from the play, like the famous “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” only to have the f-word uttered in the same breath.
It was just as well that I had read and was familiar with Macbeth. For others not familiar, it will be a struggle to follow as the play weaves in and out, very quickly between the Shakespeare’s version to the Zinnie Harris’s version, sometimes leaving out key plot points from the original. The cast alternates between the Shakespearean dialogue and accents to modern day Australian which although entertaining at first, was hard to understand in Act 1 as some of the cast mumbled their lines.
The play is made up of ten actors, most of whom also play multiple characters with Bojana Novakovic in the lead role as Lady Macbeth. Bojana stood out from the rest of the cast. She is both witty and captivating, especially in the more intense scenes of her character in the second act. Johnny Carr also gave a powerful and enthralling performance as Macbeth and had excellent on-stage chemistry with Bojana. Natasha Herbert portrays the servant as well as the first of the three Weird Sisters to appear and the narrator. One of the highlights of the night was when Natasha broke the fourth wall, interacting the audience or members of the stage crew.
With Macbeth (An Undoing), there is hopefully something for everyone to enjoy. It will be appeal to those like myself who studied Shakespeare and knew the text well and to the theatregoers who seek fresh originality.
Macbeth (An Undoing) is directed by Matthew Lutton, written by Zinnie Harris and stars Bojana Novakovic, Johhny Carr, Tony Briggs, Tyallah Bullock, Jessica Clarke, Jim Daly, Rashidi Edward Natasha Herbert, Khisraw Jones-Shukoor and David Wood. The performance is playing for a short season, until and including Sunday 28 July at The Malthouse Theatre at 113 Sturt St, Southbank. It is a 15-minute walk from Flinders Street Station.
Macbeth (An Undoing) contains coarse language, adult and sexual themes, depictions of violence and loud theatrical sound and smoke effects. The show’s run time is 2 hours and 10 minutes with a 20-minute intermission.
To buy tickets and learn more about the show, go to https://www.malthousetheatre.com.au/what-s-on/malthouse-theatre/macbeth-an-undoing/#eventTarget
