London seems to be full of versions of Macbeth this winter: National Theatre; Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican, Globe and the National Youth Theatre have all had productions on: maybe something to do with it being a set book for school exams? Certainly when I went to see the RSC version, the audience was full of teenagers. Somehow Macbeth is the Shakespeare play I have become most familiar with. My Penguin edition, pictured, dates from 1967, so I probably saw it around then, most likely at the Old Vic, which I used to visit in those days. But my most memorable performance was at the National, when Anthony Hopkins had the lead but, on the night I attended, was "indisposed"; John Shrapnel was an able deputy. Denis Quilley was excellent as Banquo, notably in the scene where the illusion was created of a vast number of Banquos descending a staircase to haunt a fevered Macbeth.
So, how was the RSC production? It was most noted for Christopher Eccleston, a former Dr Who, playing the title role, but, actually it was quite an innovative Macbeth: in modern dress; the three witches were young children; the porter was on stage throughout, occasionally swept up and kept count of the murders; a digital clock kept the time of Macbeth's brief reign and now and again words were projected on the back of the stage. Some of this worked, some was a bit distracting; personally I didn't go for the witches as kids, sinister though kids can be (remember The Shining?); but the porter seemed to make sense. The main positive was that the production was fast paced, lively and held my attention throughout. Eccleston seemed entirely credible as the over ambitious soldier who lets evil take him over. So a pretty good show I thought. Sorry, I am not going to see all the others, but I will go again when and if another more traditional production hits town.
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