OBSERVER: Macbeth at Royal Botanic Gardens
Would Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Macbeth, suit outdoor presentation?
Would strong winds destroy vocal clarity?
Needless concerns in the Australian Shakespeare Company’s latest offering of Macbeth in the Royal Botanic Gardens.
The view on arrival with my picnic basket – a splendid back curtain of the Garden’s mature trees and a raised stage with a bleak layer of wooden seats, a table and an old castle tower.
All were used effectively for the requisite banquet ghost scene, the interior castle scenes and the uneven carpet of Dunsinane Wood. Macbeth’s (Hugh Sexton) last commanding boast of immortality rang out from the tower of the castle before Macduff’s (Jackson McGovern) famous Caesarean birth shock news destroyed him.
Natural light managed to accentuate the show’s own. Daylight disappeared just on interval, and then darkness descended on us literally, as simultaneously the souls of the murdering couple metaphorically darkened further.
And a bonus, an eerie moon kept disappearing and reappearing, enhancing Peter Amesbury’s lighting. Who could ask for a better art/nature combination?
And oh! the Highlander style costumes! The swords and barbaric fights and heads in bags.
Acclaim must go to Paul Norton,
Sue-Ellen Shook, Karla Erenbots and Kaspa Elston.
The witches (Henny Walters, Madeleine Somers, Elizabeth Brennan) always open to speculative interpretation, had wild moorland clothing, crazy hair and the text’s “skinny fingers”.
The cauldron scene with the apparitions was quite marvelous, leading from the wildly bubbling pot to the apparitions.
The latter sped up on the now revolving castle as Banquo’s lineage hammered home Lady (Nicole Nabout) and Macbeth’s fastening spiral into madness – masterful.
As was (Luke Lennox’) Porter – superb calm before the storm.
A cast of 18 with several dual roles, all delivered with aplomb. 20 years on and Glen Elston’s Australian Shakespeare Company is as vital and enchanting as ever.
And his direction as engaging. New interpretations successfully come and go, and this ruthless Jacobean style Macbeth is another winner.
A picnic and a murder – I hope you’ve booked .
Tickets: $35 – $100 until Feb 28
Venue: Royal Botanic Gardens
Bookings: shakespeare
australia.com.au/shows/macbeth
Maggie Morrison
Pictured: Hugh Sexton (Macbeth) and Company in the Australian Shakespeare Company’s Macbeth. Photo: Ben Fon