The Acting Warehouse's production of Macbeth (directed by Gavin McAlinden) explores themes of power, grief and guilt. The Acting Gymnasium is a weekly performance workshop, allowing actors to develop their skills and perform in a show; a unique concept which presents the opportunity for a range of abilities to star on stage.
Macbeth himself (played by Aryan Chavda) does a wonderful job of commanding the stage. We truly see him explore the wide range of human emotion, and the very human experience of dealing with the consequences of your own misconstrued actions. Lady Macbeth (played by Prilly Lee) also does a fantastic job, crafting a layered and emotionally conflicting performance of a classically infamous character.
Certain scenes did feel somewhat stagnant and stationary. I think a lot of focus was placed upon scenes with solitary performers, particularly Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, in ensuring that they utilised the space and kept your attention, despite being alone. However, I think the same level of attention was also required with these larger scenes as a lot of the performers would enter the stage and just stay in one spot. These scenes were often quite dialogue-heavy and I think they could've really benefitted from the cast playing around with spacing a bit more, therefore allowing a more dynamic performance.
The witches (played by Tana Brill, Carol Ratti and Sabrina Santamaria) were a particular highlight for me, both in terms of performance and costume. As an audience member, you could feel that the actors were having a lot of fun with the role and they worked really well together as a trio; bringing a touch of chaos and fear to the production.
I think the overall lighting (designed by Jack Hathaway) and sound design (designed by Joe Browning) felt a tad confused at times. There were a number of times where the stage would black out and music would play whilst characters were still finishing their lines, therefore cutting them off mid-way. I also found that a few scenes were particularly dark, despite having multiple characters on stage, lacking in any sort of spotlight or mood lighting.
This production is described as a ‘new imagining' of Macbeth, taking inspiration from Japanese horror, German expressionism and Chiaroscuro. I think The Acting Gymnasium has produced a pretty classic production of the story, but I wouldn't say it strays too far from the original text. There are some small moments and scatterings of horror inspiration (i.e the costume choices for the witches and Banquo's ghostly makeup/effects), however, I don't feel as though it was quite as unique as the show's description promised.
Macbeth is playing at the Network Theatre until 25th October
It runs until 25 October.
Review: Bethany Chandler Photo: Mandy Gasson