View from the Green Room: ‘By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes’
Dungarvan Dramatic's cast of Macbeth.
Dungarvan Dramatic works heroics to bring Macbeth to the tiny stage of Dungarvan Town Hall and the straight-forward, linear production works its charm with the large Leaving Cert audience because it’s utterly faithful to the text.
Keeping a school audience engaged for almost three hours – especially an audience that knows the script like the back of their hand – is no small achievement.
Nevertheless, Shakespeare’s 1606 Macbeth needs cuts for a modern audience. Did we really need all of the bloody messenger’s dialogue, the ingredients (with no props) for the witches' brew, the lengthy and tedious dialogue between Malcolm and Macduff – to name just a few?
There’s a young cast and the production is largely traditional in its interpretation, with one obvious exception. With a largely female cast, the interpretation of Duncan (Padraigín Kiely) as a woman is broadly acceptable. However, the casting and interpretation of Macduff( Macaelach McBride) as a woman with a wife – leaving us with two Lady Macduffs and a Mr Macduff (Declan Caffrey), along with the verbal, familial and sexual gymnastics to justify it – just doesn’t work. Still, it’s a moot point and provides for academic discussion for a young and well-clued-in audience.
Dirk Bowman’s lighting design and Dave Zannis’s sound effects work well in the restrictive space and lamps available to create the dark world of Macbeth. The curtain never falls on this nightmarish world. The stars never shine and the dim atmospheric lighting provides little relief, forcing the audience’s attention on the inner workings and terrors of Macbeth and his wife. This is truly a man who, in seeking to gain all, loses all and who is ’so stepped in horror’ that there’s no going back.
There are some fine performances. John Flynn’s Macbeth evolves over the course of the action from reluctant assassin to bloody murderer in a Scotland where "each new morn, new widows cry, new orphans howl".
Emma Walsh is a sombre and thoughtful Lady Macbeth who comes to regret her words and actions. The Queen’s sleepwalking scene is very moving as she is haunted nightly by the physical horror of Duncan's bloody murder. Her despairing cry: "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" is moving and pitiful; Gareth Gilroy is impressive as Malcolm; Johnny Maher gives a fine performance as the conflicted Banquo; Jackie Ryan and Maria Ryan are reluctant servants to their master Macbeth; the Witches (Margaret Dennehy, Siobhán Buckley, Orla Glascott) weave a sinister threat and Dave Pollock is a big hit with his raucous interpretation of the Hell Porter that gets the Dungarvan groundlings going.
Director Mike Keep certainly chose a massive challenge for his first production and his baptism of fire should stand to him in future productions.
Dungarvan Dramatic aims this production at second-level students and the large audience of next year’s Leaving Cert were generous in their applause for this production. For many of them, this is their first experience of a real theatre and I envied them.
Hopefully, this will be the first experience of many. Sitting amongst them was a delight and their attention spoke volumes.
