Macbeth

This is a live performance production of Macbeth that sometimes makes you forget there's an audience. With inventive camera work from all angles that makes it look like characters are exiting up stairways or through hallways. I wasn't made aware of the audience except for an occasional laugh and towards the end when the cast started coming down the stairs from the back. The performances, especially Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Macduff, were excellent, with Macbeth becoming almost bestial and Lady Macbeth portrayed as younger and sexier than usual. The scene when Macduff hears about his wife and children's murder was prolonged and very affecting. The banquet scene with the ghost of Banquo was exceptionally well staged. Fiennes has a powerful voice, but his complex performance, goes beyond that. It made me remember a production of the play with Christopher Plummer and Glenda Jackson. Plummer later admitted that the only reasons for the production were to pair him and Jackson and to have him recite Shakespeare's verse with his beautiful voice. (I remember when Jackson came out for the curtain call she looked angry that we were applauding.) This production is about more than voices and offers a unique interpretation.