Macbeth – Unity, Liverpool

Writer: William Shakespeare

Director: Simon Plumridge

Producer: Platform 4

Reviewer: David Noble

The Public Reviews Rating:

In the programme notes, it claims that ‘Platform 4 create magical performance work that is highly visual and aims to captivate and involve.’ Yet in reality, this production of Macbeth was really rather tame. The visual effects, which were occasional, were nothing groundbreaking and contributed little to the overall narrative and aesthetic of the play. The nature of the stage at the Unity, which is open and usually combines with the use of very few props, suggested to me that Platform 4 were intending to let the text speak for itself – which is fair considering the figurative richness of the verse, however on that front again I was left somewhat disappointed.

The main problem of the performance was James G Bellorini’s Macbeth, in that he simply was not convincing. Everything seemed so one note, indeed there was no distinction in his register from psychologically disturbed scenes such as dagger in the mind, to scenes where he was supposed to be confident and triumphant; he really failed to grapple with the text. We only saw one aspect of Lady Macbeth too, played by Tamsin Fessey, there was no progression in her character from cool, calm manipulator to the insane. It seemed the entire cast somehow lacked any sort of nuance of character, there was very little humanity in the performance, it was all overwrought bluster, which left me considerably frustrated.

Nevertheless, it would be harsh of me to condemn the entire cast to mediocrity. I thought it was a nice touch to bring humour to the ghost at the banquet scene; and overall I thought Ralf Higgins shined as Duncan/MacDuff, his grief, unlike most emotion in the performance, was palpable. He alone seemed to have an understanding of the text.

In essence, Platform 4’s production was Macbeth by numbers. There was no innovation, there was no dazzling performance, and there was no spark. The production felt tired and flat, and even reached the point where the delivery of some lines was enough to make you cringe. Macbeth was truly underwhelming.