Review: Macbeth at Cast Doncaster

“…stunning…violent, tense and full bodied…”

Macbeth by Flabbergast Theatre, Cast Doncaster

By Grace Sansom

I have never been so hypnotised by Shakespeare. This production wraps you up and consumes you. The set and aesthetic are folk and haunting. The use of live music and sound grips you and doesn’t let go. The costumes are a literal blank canvas that the actors colour: with clay, wine and blood, and their fantastic full-body performances. This is a visceral, raw, haunting and daring reimagining of one of the Bard’s most performed plays. It proves that we are forever learning from the human dilemmas and catastrophe he presents.

The use of physical theatre is stunning, so huge props to Matej Matejka (Movement Director). The actors perform with their entire souls and entire bodies. Henry Maynard’s direction is carefully crafted and draws ‘The Scottish Play’ back to its somewhat pagan roots, drawing on Celtic occult and druid harmonies. Each element, sound, set, lighting, movement, stirs up a fear in you and you watch their Macbeth with bated breath.

It’s violent, tense and full bodied. That is, apart from the random interspersion of clowning from the Porter (Henry Maynard). It’s joyful and well received by the school-trip-filled weekday audiences. But it does tectonically jar against the foggy, brewing atmosphere that the crew have worked so hard to create. It’s good, but I’m not sure how it fits, dramaturgically or structurally. For an easily distracted teenage audience watching with their teachers, you could see them think that the interval is coming. It doesn’t for another 30 minutes or so. The audience is now riled up: fidgety and giggly, and they never quite calm down. It’s like their immaturity has been woken up, without an interval to diffuse it, and the following thrusting sequences, kissing and blood sure won’t put it to sleep.

Simon Greaves is our Macbeth and he’s fantastic, delivering those well-known lines with newness. He’s vulnerable and not ‘drunk on ambition’ in the way we know this protagonist. He isn’t wide eyed, empowered and inhibited: he’s sloppy, messy, placid, panicked. He contrasts staggeringly against Harvey Scorah’s valiant and clear-eyed Banquo, and Daniel Chrisostomou’s noble and steadfast Macduff. He flickers in comparison to their flame, and this is due to skilful portrayal. Macbeth’s drunkenness is driven by fear of the next crisis catching up with him. The guilt means he disintegrates in front of our eyes. He embodies humanity and its failings against what is expected. It was also Greave’s birthday during the Doncaster performance, so happy birthday and congratulations on a stellar performance.

Unfortunately, our Macbeth and Lady Macbeth do not meet each other in performance. Vyte Garriga’s interpretation, of one of drama’s most complex female characters, is monotonal against Maynard’s kaleidoscopically human Macbeth. She is either sauntering and cocky, or screaming, then mute. Lady Macbeth holds some of the best lines in the play, but you could barely make them out unless you knew what was coming. The diction in this case really let things down and was a murmuring opinion of most audience members when leaving Cast, I noted.

Despite the movement, music and aesthetic being so elevated and successful, Shakespeare is lost when you cannot understand what is said on stage. The words are its powerful core, not the production – no matter how much there is or how good. This is an ironic dilemma for a play about overambition.

At times, you could only make out Garriga’s rhythm, no words at all. It ripped me out of the hypnotism and suspension that the rest of the production had me under. Maybe a mic or slowing of pace would help? We can’t not understand what is said by Lady Macbeth. Then there’s almost no Macbeth at all. It’s a shame, as her lines are my favourite, just deliciously smart.

Nevertheless, at the end of the production, a teacher turned to three of her GCSE pupils. She asked what they thought. They replied, ‘That was alreyt, Miss. Sick actually. Reyt good and I’m glad I missed the footie’. I don’t think I can give Flabbergast Theatre’s retelling a better compliment than that. If you’ve got a teenage boy saying he’s glad he missed the football, I think you have succeeded in your dramatic mission.

In my humble opinion, Flabbergast have concocted a magical, fearful, and human production and I can’t wait to see more of them. Their aesthetic, music and movement scratched a real itch in my brain and I want it scratched again. Maynard has achieved a feat of theatre and I’m sure it’ll only keep going. I’m sure their upcoming production of Beckett’s Endgame will be an absolute sensory feast.

Macbeth plays at Cast Doncaster on Tuesday 14 April.

Grace Sansom is a freelance theatre critic and arts and cultural journalist based in Doncaster, covering productions in Doncaster, Sheffield, Leeds and York. She has been reviewing theatre for 7 years, published locally and nationally, for digital and in print publications. In 2023, Grace won a place on the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Society’s Emerging Critic Scheme, reviewing and commentating for The Herald. Grace has worked in arts marketing and communications for 5 years, now working in Digital Content for the Booker Prizes. Grace also runs the Doncaster Creatives’ Book Club, writing and publishing book content on their popular Substack. You can find Grace on Instagram.