Macbeth at The Stratford Shakespeare Festival

Review of Scottish Play starring Colm Feore and Yanna McIntosh

Aug 21, 2009

This is the second time Des McAnuff has directed Macbeth. In 1983 he directed Nicholas Pennell. In 2009, he directs Colm Feore, not with a bang, but a whimper.

A Modern Macbeth for Production Number Ten at Stratford

For 2009's Macbeth, director Des McAnuff envisions the mighty Scottish warrior (Colm Feore) fighting through the mid 20th-century African civil war with jeeps and guns and machetes. McAnuff compares Scots to African barbarians – “history through a prism”. Think of Rwanda, Uganda and the universal themes of dictatorship, torture, mass murder, tyranny, moral and political corruption, all fuelled, rather than questioned by the media.This Macbeth is very modern in its staging. For those who like The Bard shaken and stirred, this incarnation will satisfy theatrical thirst, but for others who prefer The Scottish King straight up, McAnuff's Macbeth is hard to swallow.

Complete with security monitors and visuals (reminiscent of Neil Munro’s Saint Joan at the Shaw Festival and Jeanette Lambermont’s Henry V at Stratford), the production has press conferences, cameras, and mics, mixed with ear-cracking pyrotechnics. The way McAnuff hath tarted it up, the essence of this staging is very cold, stark, and Orwellian in nature. Despite all the FX bells and whistles, the bottom line is still .... "Blood will have blood."

Colm Feore as Macbeth

Colm Feore waited 20 years to do this role and paints Macbeth in surprisingly understated cerebral pallet. Now a major star in film and television, (Changeling, Bon Cop, Bad Cop, The Listener, 24) he is physically toned, but shockingly thin to the point of being skeletal and gaunt. In the before and after murder scenes, McAnuff’s master enough to let Shakespeare's text speak through Feore’s eloquent delivery on a spare set. Feore attempts many dimensions and nuances in this role (first played at Stratford by Christopher Plummer opposite Kate Reid in 1962).

There have been several disastrous productions of “Mackers” at Stratford – Graham Abbey in 2004, and Rod Beattie in 1999. Fortunately, Feore is not in that category. He’s not exactly Plummer, and he does have some moments in this pyro-crazy production. His delivery of the famed “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…” is riveting, as a Thane once driven by blood, now drowning in it. But Feore’s Macbeth is nothing close to his rogue’s gallery of Bard bad boys like his Richard III, or Othello's Iago.

Lady Macbeth and Supporting Cast

Yanna McIntosh as Lady M. fares well in her famed soliloquies, mining this murderess’ emotional palette from blinding ambition to madness. But coupled with Feore, McIntosh simply does not have the smouldering chemistry that this actor has had with his past leading ladies, and as many audience members observe, McIntosh smacks entirely too much of Michelle Obama.

Geraint Wyn Davies gives unwitting Duncan much more scope and range in this version, making him a little more memorable than Duncans past (Wyn Davies also did this with Polonius last year in Hamlet), and Tom Rooney as Porter / Gatekeeper to The Macbeth Reign of Hell is a joy to watch as the scene stealer and welcome comic relief he is meant to be. Sophia Walker’s Lady MacDuff is feisty and heart wrenching with her son Kolton Stewart in that diabolical scene as Macbeth’s goons “surprise the castle” leaving no survivors.

The Weird Sisters (Karen Glave, Amanda Lisman and Cara Ricketts), decked out in military camouflage, are not “witchy” enough with their multi-colour cauldron – something totally digital with McAnuff's superimposed imagery this way comes!

The supporting cast is adequate, with nice moments from Dion Johnstone as Macduff and Timothy D. Stickney (aka R. J. Gannon on soap opera One Life to Life) as Banquo. Still, with all the Xtra Effects which may appeal to the younger audience, there are likely some purists who will want McAnuff’s head on a stick for this refracted Scottish / African political tale of assassination and anarchy.

Macbeth starring Colm Feore directed by Des McAnuff, continues at Stratford Festival Theatre to October 31, 2009 at Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Ontario, Canada.

The copyright of the article Macbeth at The Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Playwrights & Stage Actors is owned by Coral Andrews. Permission to republish Macbeth at The Stratford Shakespeare Festival in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.