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Macbeth (Manchester International Festival) @ NT Live

The camerawork for the NT Live screenings has developed extraordinarily since the project’s early days. Covering Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford’s Macbeth, cameras swooped over the action, fast editing gave a kinetic and chaotic insight into the battle scenes, extreme close-ups caught beads of sweat and tears on Macduff’s face, and the slow pans to …

2008: Macbeth (TR Warszawa) @ Guardian Online

By a bizarre quirk of international programming, this is the fourth Polish production of Macbeth I’ve seen. The most recent, by Teatr Piesn Kozla, remains one of the finest Shakespeare productions I’ve ever seen, while Teatro Buiro Podrozy’s Macbeth: Who is that Bloodied Man? created a wild and hugely experimental aesthetic featuring stilts and a …

Macbeth @ The New Theatre, Nottingham

Just a quick note, for completeness’ sake, to say that I made it to the Nottingham New Theatre’s production of Macbeth last week. I don’t review shows that feature students who I do or will teach, but great to see the country’s only completely student-run theatre in action, and an interesting idea to set it …

Dunsinane (National Theatre of Scotland/RSC) @ The Swan Theatre

It’s amusing to note that, while the Royal Shakespeare Company first produced David Greig’s Dunsinane in 2010, it only played in London; and it’s only in the National Theatre of Scotland’s staging of the RSC production that the play has finally come to Stratford-upon-Avon, after an outing at Edinburgh’s Lyceum. It’s less amusing to report …

Macbeth (RSC) @ The Royal Shakespeare Theatre

The first new production in the re-opened and redesigned RST is also the opening salvo of the RSC’s fiftieth birthday celebration season. Artistic Director Michael Boyd christens the new space with a production very much in keeping with his principles – no celebrity names but a lead actor, Jonathan Slinger, who made his name coming …

Discords (After Shakespeare) (Fail Better) @ Warwick Arts Centre Studio

It’s the tenth anniversary of Fail Better Productions, a company who I’ve been working alongside on and off for the last few years. Specialising in Becket, devised work and revivals (witness the excellent Play Without a Title), they’ve more recently been working with a student ensemble at Warwick on a devised piece, which received its …

Macbeth (Song of the Goat Theatre/ Teatr Piesn Kozla) @ The Barbican Pit

Writing about web page http://macbeth-thepoint.co.uk/ Last night’s production was informed, for this reviewer, by mimetic associations and intertextuality that bordered, at times, on déjà vu. It was the second Polish take on Macbeth I’ve seen in the last couple of years. It was also the second Macbeth I’ve seen this year at the Barbican, both …

Song of the Goat’s Macbeth

Writing about web page http://www.barbican.org.uk/theatre/event-detail.asp?ID=11061&utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CCSBIT140710A&utm_content=101%20weekly%20artform%20email Very exciting this. Coming to the Barbican in November is the long-awaited Macbeth by Song of the Goat Theatre. This is the production that was premiered as a work-in-progress during the RSC’s Complete Works Festival, and even back then it was a breathtakingly physical and visceral collection of scenes. Don’t …

Macbeth @ Shakespeare’s Globe

Writing about web page http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/theatre/annualtheatreseason/macbeth/ Lucy Bailey’s recent outings at Shakespeare’s Globe have been some of the biggest highlights of the theatre’s annual season. Last year’s Timon of Athens, in particular, made amazing, innovatory use of the space to create a theatrical experience that was total and participatory, creating something theatrically effective over any sense …

Macbeth (Cheek by Jowl) @ Silk Street Theatre, The Barbican

Writing about web page http://www.cheekbyjowl.com/productions/macbeth/index.html I loved Cheek by Jowl’s new production of Macbeth, and yet, as I left it, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, for I was beginning to wonder whether the company may have lost their ability to change my world. If you’ve seen any of the company’s previous productions, …