Rose Macbeth Review

I feel like I must emphasize that I have real appreciation for creativity in interpretations of art. Artists draw interpretations of their realist. Singers create music that is an interpretation of their feelings and thoughts. Directors and actors do the same thing with plays that have been around for centuries. That said, the Macbeth play that I saw at The Rose was not my particular cup of tea. It was creative and unique throughout…but intriguing less of the time than I would have liked. I understand that there were limitations with having only six actors to play an incredible amount of characters. I also understand that they were not the Globe, though this play made me re-examine my earlier opinions of The Globe’s Macbeth, but this is a review of the play at The Rose, therefore I shall do my best to stay away from comparing the two to each other.

I want to at least start with the good. The symbolic nature of the red cloth was a nice touch, I think. Stooping so low into death and ambition that they could never be rid of the stains on their hearts was very deep and a very good addition to the play. I also liked that when Lady Macbeth took the cloth, that Macbeth would up tying the red cord around him so that they both had evidence of guilt and blood on their hands. That was one of the great ideas the director had. The second great idea was the most outstanding thing to me in this play was the connection of love between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Granted, it made you feel uncomfortable to watch as a bystander, but it also made sense because if you were arriving home from battle to see the love of your life in your own private rooms, affectionate moments like that are bound to take place. There was real chemistry between the characters that made it believable. They were not uncomfortable and they seemed genuinely happy and even slightly distracted by each other when they were together despite discussing murder and other foul things. It was a tad strange, but at least once in the play, both characters sniffed something the other had been wearing. Lady Macbeth held up Macbeth’s jacket to her face after one of his insane conversations and Macbeth did the same to the cloth Lady Macbeth had on her once she had just died. Macbeth’s monologue from Act 5, Sc. 5, lines 20-31 felt incredibly heartfelt. I could even feel myself feeling sympathy toward his loss as he almost cries from sadness as well as craziness as he had basically lost his good mental state by that point in the play. I truly felt his feelings in that monologue and for the first time I really grasped fully how much Macbeth can be shown to love his wife. It was actually quite beautiful.

From the beginning, I was put off by the use of technology. I understand setting the play in a more modern setting. That is an interesting idea and I was intrigued at first, but I feel like the recorded messages stole all the action. Also the one-sided cell phone conversations stole so much from the plot. The idea of using a cell phone throughout the play felt like a cop-out to me. Right from the beginning I was taken aback when important news like a title being bestowed upon someone is sent in a text message saying Ross’s part from Act 1, Sc. 3 lines 109-112 “And for an earnest of a greater honor, he bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor, In which addition, hail, most worthy thane, For it is thine”. It felt very out of place even in a modern setting. I also very much disliked the sending of the letter to Lady Macbeth being in the form of a text (Act 1, Sc. 5, lines 1-14) read painstakingly slowly at first by Macbeth, who is typing it, and then finished by Lady Macbeth who is reading it. There was only one call in the entire play that made any kind of decent sense to me. That was when Macbeth called the assassins to kill Banquo and Fleance (Act 3, Sc. 1). That was not as important to be fully done on stage. On the other hand, they completely killed the scene between Macbeth asking about his wife to the doctor. There was such a lack of concern which was against the set up of their relationship throughout the play. That upset me slightly.

When the play started with a recorded message of the success of Macbeth, eliminating the need to have the second scene of Act 1 where Duncan declares Macbeth Thane of Cawdor. That was something that could be easily ignored. What was jarring was that it took the place of every murder in the play. Even though the play was still a tragedy and basically morbid throughout, the play has action scenes that have the potential to be incredible. Duncan’s death can be a bit vague as is the first and most progressive death in the play. Banquo’s on the other hand was ridiculous with the created character of “Darkness” dancing Banquo to death. There is also no visual Fleance, Banquo’s son, to make sense of the important factor that he got away. Then a news message tells the world of what happened, leaving me feeling somewhat confused. Macduff’s family’s death was only reported by news message. There was no connection of Macduff’s feelings towards his family or their death. There was not even an establishment of him as a character that was important as the same actor was running around in a black cape and turning actors over to the dark side as well as making a Duncan shadow. I understand that the character of “Darkness” was an interesting addition to the play as the characters sink deeper, but it just did not fit with the play well enough. The worst moment of the play was its ending with a news message telling us the result of Macduff and Macbeth’s fight. It was incredibly anti-climactic and left me feeling unsatisfied.

Overall, I was not very taken with this interpretation. Taking liberties is all well and good, but there are always going to be those out there who love an idea or very much dislike it. There were good concepts, like the red cloth/rope and the love connection between the main characters. But there will also be things that do not mesh with the story so well, like Darkness and the lack of so many important characters leaving the play feeling a bit empty. The actors were not bad, I at least want to say that, but as good as they were they just were not enough to make the play feel fulfilling for me.