Review of Macbeth at Hull Truck Theatre

That late Grand Dame, Edith Evans was once asked why, in a long and glittering career, she had never once played one of the key Shakespearean female roles, Lady Macbeth? Her answer came without hesitation. “Because,” she offered: “That woman seemed to have a remarkably odd view of hospitality!”

Lady M ’s virtues – or lack of them – are put aside in this new production by Mark Babych who gives his would-be Queen a little dinner party at the end of the first act, where to soften the mood after the preceding mayhem, she offers champagne and soothing background music. This is very definitely a much different Mabeth, and that is (for the most part) very much to its credit. Our Lady M here is scheming, vengeful, and not one whit worried about the amount of gore that has been sloshed across her carpets. She’s played with spiteful joy by the splendid Jo Mousley.

The set, by Rachel Canning, puts us in some sort of bunker, and there’s a feel of post-apocalypse about it; Sally Ferguson’s lighting and Annie May Fletcher’s sound design are unerringly accurate. Babych has deftly filleted the original, with some characters removed altogether, but he gets to the core of the story, giving it both speed and clarity. Here, we are not observing Macbeth as a soldier on the make, growing as he goes, but one who shrinks. He ends up as a cornered thug, and Oliver Alvin-Wilson plays him perfectly. There is a genuine feel of mounting excitement – it is as if this Macbeth has been planning the events for years, but has been haunted by their enormity.

When they slowly become fulfilled, his nightmares become reality, and he can’t cope. He also realises that he lacks many of the qualities of kingship, while his missus is acting like an army wife who is energetically elbowing everyone aside so that her Brigadier husband can become a full General. Alvin-Wilson makes him baffled – and anguished. On a totally different level, there’s Colin Hurley, ripping into a version of the Porter with relish. It’s segment of beautifully paced perverted fun, in the centre of the bloodshed.

Macduff and his wife are delivered with power by Simon Trinder and Josie Morley, and the witches’ opening cookery lesson with the discussion of the ingredients will delight school groups. Here are three very merry ladies, revelling in their sins. There are only ten actors in the production, but it remains cogent, powerful and compelling.

To February 28 then touring.