Macbeth @ Citizens Theatre

Macbeth ponders his bloody deed with a bag of Wotsits in hand, while Lady Macbeth prepares party bags for the feast while musicians await the party behind them. Filter’s Macbeth is bizarre, often baffling, but never boring.

Macbeth is the latest of many classic texts to receive the Filter treatment, in which the company consistently aim to ‘pin-point the very heart of the plays by uncovering the light and darkness of the language.’ Their stated desire in this instance is to create a more ‘playful’ Scottish Play, and they certainly achieve it.

The performances throughout have a lightness of touch and often pursue humour where a more traditional approach might have favoured brooding grimness. This feeling of playfulness also extends to the staging, which is interesting but occasionally obtuse – blind man’s bluff at the feast may be fun, but its meaning is lost. 

Their choices are refreshing, and the result is a production which is as much a discussion of Macbeth as it is a performance of it; an undercurrent which is in fact realised in one brief and entertainingly ‘meta’ moment. The downside being that moments of pathos, such as the death of Macduff’s family, are not felt so keenly.

Central to Filter’s dissection of the tragedy, is the music, which forms the perfect counterpoint to Macbeth’s story – whether providing a haunting undertone to his infamous dagger speech or mocking with its joviality his desperate attempts to get clear answers from the witches. Sound is the star of the show. [Cameron MacAskill]