DD140726

DD140726 is a newspaper clipping of a review of Macbeth (1971) by Peter Fiddick.

The photo above the article is shown in DD140754.

Transcript

GREENWICH

Peter Fiddick

Macbeth

IN HIS PROGRAMME note, Ewan
Hooper draws comparison between
Macbeth and modern figures, part de
Gaulle, part military dictator seizing
power for its own sake, and part Hitler,
Manson, Ian Brady. Interesting ideas,
but the very tidy world of Shake-
speare's play does not, when put in
----------------------------------------
front of you really let the imagination
get too far away from its own strong
grip. So a production which, as this
one does, shuns the ritual and cere-
monial elements, ans also atkes a
relaxed, low-key approach to the text,
runs into the danger of simply sliding
over the passions binding these people
together, rather than getting to the
play's human core in an anti-heroic
way, which is what Mr Hooper seems
to be after.
  It is a difficult approach, demanding
more ability to weave the patterns of
everyday speech out of Shakespeare's
verse than most of the cast were
capable -- including Alan Dobie's
casual, loping Macbeth, too
often sounding petulant rather than
impassioned, jokey rather than man-
sized. Too often lines are garbled or
swallowed, and with them the rhythm
of the play's development. In a pro-
duction with some interesting effects
of sound and vision for the super-
natural--monster distorted ghosts 20ft.
high, and a semi-musical setting of
the witch chants in contemporary
idioms--it is a pity the flaw is in basic
human skills.