In my post of the 1st October, I included a review of Part 7 of Gregory Doran's My Shakespeare. This was about his production of Macbeth in 1999 that was later filmed for TV. This was what encouraged me to buy the DVD of that same production at The Roundhouse in London. I have to say that I was quite disappointed, mainly because of the "lively" camera that dodged about repeatedly, especially in the first half. I guess that they were trying to make the play more suitable for television rather than a staged theatrical production. For me, it just did not work. Those "artistic" close ups were, if antyhing, quite distracting.
It is a modern dress setting and that was OK, the costumes and make up were fine. However, using the bare stage of The Roundhouse became somewhat tedious. The play was almost saved by Harriet Walter as Lady Macbeth with Anthony Sher as her husband close behind. But I have never seen such a scary Porter as Stephen Noonan. I thought the Porter was meant to be a comedy diversion. Not here. He was just nasty, sneering at the camera. Give me Barrie Rutter any day. Finally, there was one point that Macbeth turns from a quiet ruminative man into a gay loudmouth. What was that all about Greg?
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