Shakespeare is a bottomless well of possibilities for the theatres, world-round, with varying degrees of success.
Peter Brooks’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bernstein’s West Side Story, Kurosawa’s Ran and Cole Porter Kiss Me Kate are only four of an endless list of successful adaptations. Year after year, theatre companies exercise their need to put their hand in. Their success hinges more on the research than the performances.
The Fringe is awash with companies putting forth their interpretation or spin on Shakespeare; you can’t spin a cat. There are more than a dozen productions with "Macbeth" in the title. There are quite a few productions that have some of the Macbeth text in them. ImmerCity has given us this year alone two different productions spring-boarded off of Macbeth (see Blood Will Have Blood).
Anna Chessher, Rebecca Calienda and Jamie Birkett take on all the roles in this well-edited and directed production. Here the actresses rotate through the roles covering most of the text.
Director Rosanna Mallinson has wisely settled on a sparse set comprising of caldrons filled with water and rimmed with blacking used by the actors to streak their faces into different characters and serviceable costumes, lights and sound.
The text is well managed by the actors even when Ms Calienda lapses into a little too “method” a delivery. They execute the movement devised by Yarit Dor with facility.
In an interesting spin on Macbeth, it is accessible to the audience and interesting to watch.