Macbeth at the National Theatre - Review

National Theatre, London


***


Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Rufus Norris

Rory Kinnear

The themes of Shakespeare’s Macbeth are timeless. Avaricious envy, revenge, and the consequences of guilt have driven humanity’s darker side for centuries and in the hands of a talented cast, Macbeth’s journey makes for compelling theatre.

On the National Theatre’s Olivier stage, Rufus Norris has assembled just such a cast. Once the weird sisters have him under their spell Rory Kinnear's Macbeth convincingly topples from dutiful Thane to treacherous subject - his own frailties steeled by Ann-Marie Duff as his purposeful wife. Macbeth will always be a character imbued with his own late-dawning, if misguided, sense of immortality. In this production Kinnear, who is a joy to watch throughout especially in making the classic soliloquies his own, is never finer than in his endgame of realisation, learning of MacDuff’s untimely ripping from his mother’s womb. 

Duff is pure, if fatally flawed, evil. We believe in her capacity to dash her suckling baby’s brains out, with Duff then making Lady Macbeth’s descent into a suicidal insanity, entirely plausible. With any semblance of a moral compass long since vanished, hers truly is a lost soul. 

But it’s not just Rufus Norris’ starry leads that drive this production. The play reunites (in Shakespearean terms) Stephen Boxer’s sage Duncan with Kevin Harvey’s energised Banquo, last seen together when Boxer was Titus to Harvey’s Aaron. Both men are English theatre gems. It is only a shame that Banquo’s ghostly re-appearances carry no dialogue. Harvey’s mellifluous Scouse twang is a delight and one longs for his future Othello. Elsewhere, as a passionate yet cynical MacDuff, Patrick O’Kane defines burning vengeance.

Here however, the Bard’s beautiful prose is overburdened by Norris and designer Rae Smith’s contemporary interpretations. The setting is “now, after a civil war”, with the accompanying programme essays making throwaway comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, Hillary Clinton and Brexit. A curious set design comprising a steeply raked ramp, poles and drapes made from (what appear to be) bin-liners seems to have been constructed with more of an eye for the demands of a touring production (Macbeth takes to the road in the autumn) rather than using the full potential of the Olivier's gaping jaws.

The politics may be clumsy but the acting is beautiful. Make no mistake, Rory Kinnear is a magnificent Macbeth.

Runs until 23rd June in repertory - Screened via NTLive on 10th May at cinemas across the country.

Photo credit: Brinkhoff Mögenburg

Othello

National Theatre, London

*****

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Nicholas Hytner

Rory Kinnear and Adrian Lester

Nicholas Hytner's Othello in the National Theatre's Olivier auditorium is a disturbing and brilliant reworking of the tale, setting it squarely amongst the complexities of our modern era. However, in modernising the fable and notwithstanding two outstanding performances, Hytner has highlighted how morally flawed the work is. A play famed for its take on deception and jealousy, this 2013 treatment throws the closing act's charnel-house of uxoricide, be it casual or passionate, into the spotlight of modern day unacceptability.

We first meet Iago, in civvies, outside a Venetian inn. The impression he creates of callous contemptuous envy of the Moor, with a heavy racist twist, could sadly be straight out of 1990s Eltham whilst the contempt that Brabantio, Desdemona's father shows to his new son in law, similarly drips racist vitriol that has a chillingly contemporary familiarity.

General Othello and his wife are posted to Cyprus where he is to command the fortress against Turkish attack. Under Vicki Mortimer's astonishing design, as the Venetian facades  fly up they reveal the full, gaping magnificent reach of the Olivier stage transformed into the island outpost. Barrack rooms are fabricated from steel containers, blast proof walls peppered with sterile fluorescent bulkhead lights are everywhere whilst around the perimeter a guarded wall serves as much to trap and foment trouble within its confines, as to keep marauding Turks out. If suburbia inspired the director's view of the civilian mainland, then it is Camp Bastion or maybe even Abbotabad that has provided the vision for this hellish garrison.

Rory Kinnear's Iago is a horribly plausible rendition of modern evil. Cynical and jealous, despising of his General and himself lusting for Desdemona, his is no pantomime villain. With words and manner that drip envy and contempt, Kinnear's exploration of the ordinariness of evil is a masterclass in classlessness.

As one of the leading black actors of his generation and working amidst a canon of literature that displays a shameful paucity of classic roles written for a black performer, one assumes that over the years Adrian Lester has been flooded with offers to play The Moor. If he has chosen to bide his time until the "right one" came along, he has chosen wisely . Under Hytner's direction and with Kinnear as his malevolent on-stage sparring partner, Lester's performance defines a nobility, that like the vapour trail of a rogue missile tumbling destructively out of control from the sky, is so horribly abused and manipulated by Iago.

Never forget however that both Iago and Othello are ultimately no more than wife-murderers who both wilfully kill their spouses. But because Othello was deceived about his wife's infidelity the murder that he commits, so swiftly followed followed by his guilt-ridden suicide, are seen as the actions of a tragic hero. This tacit acceptance that his jealousy-motivated murder of Desdemona is "acceptable" suggests that the violence of men against women that underlies this tale, is far more sinister than the age old textbook issues pertaining to race,  jealousy or what makes for a good General. There is almost an unwritten suggestion that if Desdemona had been unfaithful that Othello would have been justified in murdering her. This classic tale has such a mysogynist root that it arguably deserves outright condemnation, wherever it is staged.

Modernising the story puts Desdemona (Olivia Vinall in this production) in an invidious position. Shakespeare's words were penned long before women's emancipation, so whilst Hytner may have placed his Desdemona amongst a mess-room full of beer drinking squaddies and jealous violent men (gender traits that are sadly timeless), her response to Othello's accusations are out of kilter with our expectations of a modern woman. And that she finally tries to shield Othello from his guilt with her last dying breaths, proclaiming his innocence, is as sickeningly compliant with a patriarchal society as it is intended to be heartbreakingly romantic. Would a modern woman pardon her brutal murderer? It's actually a revolting question to even consider. To see and to celebrate a play that ends with two husbands murdering their wives in cold blood surely has to trouble our collective conscience.

Notwithstanding the play's amorality, rarely have two actors so magnificently embodied this infernal double-act . These performances will be discussed for years to come and for lovers of either Shakespeare or simply outstanding stagecraft, the production is unquestionably unmissable.

The play is sold out in the National Theatre repertory until 5 October 2013

Making the Unmissable unmissable, those wonderful people at NTLive will be broadcasting Othello live to cinemas across the country and also globally, on and from 26 September 2013 . The broadcast production values of the NTLive series are world class, bringing outstanding theatre to within not only the geographical reach, but also the budget, of all.

NTLive booking details can be found here.

Skyfall - Review

On general release, certificate 12A

****

Skyfall is the 23^rd film in the James Bond franchise and as has been widely reported, is released to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of  Dr No, the first in the series. It’s a dark movie, featuring a Bond who, in the words of director Sam Mendes is a “combination of lassitude, boredom, depression [and] difficulty with what he's chosen to do for a living”.

The acting in Skyfall is outstanding. Whilst Daniel Craig continues to refine and define his interpretation of 007 the film introduces the elite of Britain's performing talent, the likes of Ralph Fiennes, Rory Kinnear, Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw, to the various echelons of Judi Dench's MI6. Noted theatre critic Mark Shenton tweeted on seeing the film of the legacy owed to British theatre by world cinema. He is not wrong. Shenton further points out that several of these names have already gone so far as to have reached the pinnacle of playing Hamlet within their stage careers. In the current climate of public spending cuts Mendes is clearly leaving this Government department very ably staffed, pending the next Bond instalment. To witness the interaction between these performers, including Javier Bardem as the villain and even a cameo from Albert Finney towards the film’s conclusion, sees the movie mirror the stellar casting that the Harry Potter franchise has consistently attracted over the years.

Whilst the script is biting, witty and sharp, the plot disappoints and to describe the story in even the remotest detail risks spoiling. The evolution of this yarn has had a chequered path as MGM’s finances wobbled during the film’s development and it shows. The plot ultimately evolves into a British based version of Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner's The Bodyguard, an unquestionably well acted but nonetheless unfulfilling narrative.

For the fans, the classic ingredients of Bond are all there. The lines, THAT tune, and an outstanding opening sequence filmed in Turkey are all an absolute delight. Bond’s women are stylish and sexy as well as being thoughtfully fleshed out as characters, though perhaps the film could have cut back on some of the topless nudity. There is only so much of Daniel Craig’s chest that one can bear to watch over the course of two plus hours.  The film also largely plays out in London and the UK and again it is pleasing to see so much of the capital city and the nation's landscapes being exploited by Mendes in this 50^th anniversary tribute.

Whilst the photography and the performances shine, some of the action sequences and visual effects disappoint. Relatively early in the movie when a prominent London building is the target for a terrorist explosion, the Bond special effects team fail to deliver a convincing blast. It has also been widely trailed that the film features a tube train crashing. When this moment occurs, the visual effects involved in capturing the destruction of the (clearly model) train carriages are poor. The producers need to bear in mind that modern audiences have sophisticated tastes. They are accustomed to, for example,  both the excellence of the Harry Potter visual effects and also the outstanding work of James Cameron, so when in 2012, the audience is presented with a crashing Underground train that looks as authentic as Spielberg’s shark from the 1970’s, they are entitled to feel cheated. At the risk of being accused of pedantry, a minor point of location credibility also extends to the actual tube trains used. A journey in the movie through Temple tube station on the District Line is being made by a deep “tube” train, rather than the more “rectangular” stock that actually serve that line. The film is of course being marketed at a global audience, many of whom will not have the faintest idea of what carriages run on which London Underground lines. But some of that audience will be Londoners and they will watch those scenes with some part of their suspended disbelief (essential for all story telling) being gradually brought back down to earth. And when filmmakers choose to play fast and loose with even the most basic elements of consistency and respect for location, they insult  their audience's intelligence and it can leave a temporarily unsatisfying taste. On a positive note, Bond's on-foot chase of a villain through the foot tunnels of the tube station is the best such sequence since John Landis' An American Werewolf in London including an impressive and much envied slide down a deep Tube escalator. 

The climax of the movie, without revealing anything, is a shoot out between the good guys and the bad guys that relies too heavily on silhouettes machine-gunning each other and lobbing grenades and sticks of dynamite. For this sequence, less would have been more, and again a model of the final building in flames was visually disappointing.

Whilst the opening and closing chapters of this Bond tale are truly striking moments of quality cinema, it is a disappointment that the intervening narrative lacks depth and credibility. Notwithstanding, Mendes and Eon Productions have crafted a worthy and watchable adventure that demands to be savoured on the big screen before it is swallowed up for broadcast on the Sky 007 channel, if only to gasp in amazment at the opening sequence of Bond grappling with a villain on top of a moving train. A classic action movie sequence, captured brilliantly by Mendes and his crew.

James Bond is a very modern icon of very traditional British culture and this film is gloriously British. Mendes however has had his creditable turn at the wheel of this Aston Martin of the movie business. He should park the car and give the keys to Danny Boyle.