A party of about forty students went to the recent production of Macbeth at Nottingham Playhouse.  For those studying the play for GCSE or as part of their AS tragedy unit, it was a valuable opportunity to see the play in performance.

 

It was a clear, uncontroversial version of a play which can suffer at the hands of over-ambitious directors.  This production made story-telling its priority – at its heart the tragedy of a soldier of genius who is tempted and destroyed by the power which his ambition craves. 

 

Liam Brennan played the part of Macbeth, managing well the transition from trusted kinsman of the King to ruthless murderer. Allison McKenzie was a little too frenzied as Lady Macbeth for some tastes but she certainly made a strong case for the character to be considered a tragic victim.  The witches cackled and cursed appropriately, repeatedly returning to the stage to remind the audience that their evil lay behind so many of the events.