Macbeth

Too rushed. Too rushed. And, for the last time, too rushed. Shakespeare’s lines need time to act, resound and sink in to have the right effect. They need sufficient room. Not to spout them out so that the entire play sounds a bit like “onecompoundsentencewithnopunctuationorpauseforbreathwhenanothercharacterstopsspeakinganotherstartsjustamilisecondafterward". The only moments when this frenetic tempo calms are, paradoxically, dueling scenes. The overall effect isn’t helped by the three witches who look like they came out of the Muppet Show, with that awful Miss Piggy intonation. And to make things worse, Alex Kingston buries her hitherto solidly acted Lady Macbeth with her amateur dramatic society performance while sleepwalking. All of the above is all the more annoying in view of the fact that everything here has the parameters (from scene to cast; of course led by Branagh, hats off to him, not many could play such a complex character so economically and with no over-acting) and the potential for an adaptation that would serve as a benchmark for other versions of Macbeth. (18.10.2013)