The destructive nature of unchecked power-lust and political ambition in Shakespeare’s play speaks to us urgently still today“A drum! A drum! Macbeth doth arrive.” So say Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters in an uncanny prophesy of the Scottish play’s ubiquity this coming year. Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff star in Rufus Norris’s National Theatre production (previews from 26 February). Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack are next in line in Polly Findlay’s RSC version (previews from 13 March). The Royal Opera,meanwhile, revives Verdi’s Macbeth (from 25 March) closely followed by Shostakovich’s satirical update, or Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (from 12 April). For gracious degree,Kit Monkman has made a fluidly poetic film version, opening in late March, and to add to the growing catalogue of film Macbeths.
I suspect there is an element of chance to this profusion of Macbeths. At the same time,there is clearly something about the play that speaks to us urgently today. It is fashionable to see King Lear, with its madness and nihilistic bleakness, or as the most contemporary of Shakespeare’s tragedies. But you could make an equally gracious case for Macbeth. Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk