In turning to Shakespeare, the touring company Imitating the Dog continues to expand the range of its distinctive form of theatre(previous productions have included adaptations of novels or of film). As often, the action is presented on a stage that is almost bare, except for cameras mounted on tripods or dollies, which are operated by actor-technicians. In place of a set we see blank screens on to which the live action is streamed and integrated into pre-set projections (here, these include animations ranging from film noir cityscapes to manga cartoons).
The effect is visually and viscerally exciting, combining the fluidity of film and the immediacy of flesh-and-blood performance. But the company’s three artistic co-directors and their team are not aiming only for aesthetic effects. Pete Brooks, Andrew Quick and Simon Wainwright expose the means of production to draw attention to the fact that the performance itself is a construction: as the actors put it in the direct-to-audience opening, “context is everything”.
This new version of Macbeth reimagines hierarchies of Scottish kings and thanes as a criminal network in an estuary city surrounded by oil refineries. Shakespeare’s language is shredded and patched with a made-up gangster patois. The bones of the plot are kept, with most of the roles played by three camera-operating actors who keep our focus tightly fixed on the two main characters. Macbeth (sensitively developed by Benjamin Westerby) is an upstart punk who wants to oust “capo” Duncan with the aid of backstreets childhood friend Lady Macbeth (delivered with dynamic intensity by Maia Tamrakar).
While the character of Macbeth benefits from the action-introspection balance of the film-theatre blend, Lady Macbeth loses out – given a new filmic narrative arc, her role is expanded but her dramatic impact reduced. Overall, the reworking feels immediate, but its context is more of a man’s world than in Shakespeare.
