Is this another Macbeth I see before me? Four versions in one month
DAGGERS will be drawn next year when the country’s two leading theatre companies stage rival productions of Macbeth.
The ‘ridiculous coincidence’ is made even more unlikely by the Royal Opera House putting on Verdi’s Macbeth, and a film of the play coming out – all in the same month.
Toil and trouble may now lie ahead for the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, whose productions are likely to face heavy comparison.
Only a week after Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff begin their leading roles in the National’s version on March 6, Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack will take to the stage for the RSC.
Polly Findlay, director of the RSC version, said: ‘ We can’t quite believe it.
‘It is ridiculous, completely ridiculous – all the reviews are going to compare and contrast,’ she told The Times. In particular, Kinnear and Miss Duff are likely to be scrutinised because they first appeared together as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth last year – in an RSC production.
Miss Findlay revealed that she and Rufus Norris, director of the National’s Macbeth, have been sharing notes. She said: ‘Although we have quite similar thoughts about what the text is doing and what it means and what we think is important, when you look at what we are producing I am confident they are going to be completely different.’ Oliver Mears, opera director of the Royal Opera House, said the play had endured due to ‘the power of Shakespeare’s extraordinary text’ and the themes he explores. Mr Mears said: ‘In particular, ambition and the thirst for power and the way it can turn human beings into corrupt animal figures is something that I am sure has a resonance with us today.’ His revival of Phyllida Lloyd’s production opens on March 25. British director Kit Monkman’s film of the Scottish play, which was shot on green screen and uses computer modelling, will be released in cinemas on March 13.
MAC IS AWAY