Macbeth: Blood and Bluegrass
The ‘Scottish Play’ is a bit like John Lennon's Imagine - endlessly covered and often wildly reinterpreted. I might have said I never needed to see another; however, I love good music and I'm a sucker for a fresh take (hey, I once saw Dannii Minogue play Lady Macbeth at the Fringe and it wasn't half bad), so I couldn't resist the premise of a bluegrass reworking of the famously cursed tragedy.
There's an old joke about country music that if you play it backwards, your wife comes home, your dog lives and your truck starts up. Certainly, the same could be said of Macbeth, whose eponymous hero loses everything in the paranoid pursuit of power, so a treatment of it based on country's kissing cousin feels oddly appropriate. And indeed it's in the musical portions of this adaptation that it really comes to life. With live instruments on stage and a cast of multi-talented musicians, the songs really fill the room.
It seems a little churlish to complain about too much Shakespeare in my Shakespeare, but if I have any misgivings, it's that the show wasn't brave enough with this aspect of the adaptation. When the story is being told by, through and over the music, it's hugely entertaining, but when it lapses into the more conventional chunks of source text, it somewhat loses its steam. Several characters have been gender-swapped, which in itself is no issue, but paradoxically, perhaps through fear of how it would read, this 'Lady' Macbeth becomes a much less powerful and interesting figure. Injections of admittedly very funny contemporary humour lighten the mood but feel at odds with both the more classic Shakespearean acting and the dirt-track, cowboy feel that's present elsewhere. At just under an hour and a half, this version is short enough that the original play requires significant abbreviation, but long enough that without greater depth to bolster it, the story beats can drag. A bolder, briefer and more abstract music-based retelling could have been a stronger proposition, I think.
Still, there is much to enjoy here, and the cast all give great performances. There are some absolutely barnstorming moments - most notably during "double, double toil and trouble", when the synthesis of music, movement, acting and staging really peaks. The direction is effective and there are some visually striking set pieces; using the drum kit with a green light inside it to create the cauldron was a stroke of genius.
Overall, this is an interesting spin on one of the most famous plays in history, which is no mean feat in itself. If you fancy some cracking live music with a side of Shakespeare, you should certainly give it a go.
★★★.5
