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Macbeth, by William Shakespeare |  September, 2010 & February, 2011
Set in a marquee in the meadow at Fairfield House in Nelson, this version of 'Macbeth' was something a bit different. Audience members were greeted by flaming torches, a brazier, blankets and hot toddies to set the mood. Inside the tent, 6 players wove the tragic tale into a magical and minimalist performance. The company used live music, interesting and precise physicalities and a deep connection to the text and each other to bring this Shakespearean classic to life in a new and exciting way.
The company then toured the show to Takaka and then in 2011 to the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Director
Lisa Norriss
Assistant Director
Janis Altherr
Cast
Daniel Allan
Charles Anderson (Nelson/ Takaka shows)
Doug Brooks
Laura Irish
Roger Sanders (MD)
Luke Walton
Jeff Brooks (Adelaide shows)
Many thanks to: Catherine Brosnahan, FOOF, Hirepool, Nelson Creative Communities, Maria and Jeffrey Brooks, Tim Parker and all the other hard working souls that made this show possible.
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| Macbeth at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, 2011 |  ADELAIDE THEATRE GUIDE REVIEW- Richard Flynn
Taking as their cue ideas in the “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy, Body in Space Theatre Company, visiting from Nelson, New Zealand, focus their production on Macbeth's world as created for him by actors. This approach is the key to all that follows – and the result is thoughtprovoking and hugely impressive. Staging “Macbeth” can be a minefield, dwarfing even Birnam Wood's move towards Dunsinane, but this ensemble of six actors – five men and one woman – never lose focus for a second.
Their Director is Lisa Norriss and it is obvious that the unifying idea she propounds is shared without question by her talented cast. This is a production that holds to Shakespeare's text with careful edits to support the approach and control the pace.
Only Douglas Brooks plays one part – and that, as you might expect, is Macbeth. His performance is rich and breath-taking. The others step in and out of a variety of characters as they tell his story, bare footed and clad in no more than dull brown cotton pants, dark brown cloaks with hoods, olive green vests, and the dullest of plaids. And how it works!
Stringed, wind and percussion musical instruments, played by the five story-tellers, accompany and point up the action, to which they add sounds of breath, in- and exhaled, like the sighs of an earth heaving in travail, the cry of birds and the snorting of horses.
Macbeth's ‘dearest chuck' is Laura Irish, in one of the most arresting interpretations of Lady Macbeth one could hope to see anywhere. This is mesmerising stuff and to show it is no fluke, other roles form part of her story-telling: a witch (complete with yoga-like moves and moans), various messengers and Lady Macduff, a challenge for any actor with just the one scene to make her mark. The power house for her husband until she is obliged to look on the savaged bloody body of Duncan, Lady Macbeth's deterioration is acting at its best, where less is more, with every resource invoked – voice, carriage, movement. . . and silences. Macbeth is doomed from that moment on, we know, and although he does not need his final visit to the witches with their riddling utterances, we watchers of his story do. Certainty is a comfort.
Tall, sinuous and completely captivating, Roger Sanders plays a bewildering number of characters, notably Duncan, the Porter, a murderer, and the doctor – and leads the music and sound elements with skilful guitar playing, various drums and whistles.
Daniel Allan's versatility is strikingly shown in a string of roles, notably as Banquo (a powerful yet minimalist Banquet scene), a witch, a messenger or two, the Macduffs' young son – and, for good measure, a gentlewoman in care of an ailing Lady Macbeth.
Jeff Brooks is Malcolm, Fleance, a witch, a servant and a messenger and he makes the most of each, often slipping quickly from one role to another, and back again.
Luke Walton (a redhead like Douglas Brooks) presents Macduff as a worthy alternative to the tyrant who was once his friend. Their final fight with massive two-handed metal swords is long and terrifying. As an aside, it is always important to Shakespeare and his Elizabethan audiences that a monarchy overthrown is a monarchy restored by the play's end. It is important to the Body in Space players, and important – in a broader sense - to us.
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
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