{"id":1592,"date":"2018-04-18T08:49:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T07:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1592"},"modified":"2018-04-18T08:53:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T07:53:55","slug":"propwatch-the-plastic-bags-in-macbeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2018\/04\/propwatch-the-plastic-bags-in-macbeth.html","title":{"rendered":"Propwatch: the plastic bags in Macbeth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rufus Norris\u2019 bereft, survivalist production of Macbeth<\/em> <\/a>was the show that launched a thousand thinkpieces about his regime at the National Theatre. The reviews were overwhelmingly<\/a> hostile<\/a>, and this apparently misfired Shakespeare followed on the heels of a series of mishit new plays in the Olivier Theatre, the company\u2019s flagship space. Was Norris\u2019 time up?<\/p>\n

Several weeks on, and with a fistful of Olivier awards<\/a>, things seem less stormy. As another artistic director, Daniel Evans of Chichester, cannily predicted when we spoke about the situation<\/a>, Macbeth<\/em> is heavily booked \u2013 after all, it\u2019s a popular classic on the school syllabus, featuring two house stars, Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff.<\/p>\n

Watching Macbeth<\/em> yesterday, six weeks after press night, it was hard to understand the fuss. It seemed a confident, coherent reading, stirringly-paced, with strong central performances. Maybe it simply wasn\u2019t ready when it opened: Norris carved 30 minutes off the three-hour running time in previews, which suggests a show in flux and undercooked. Perhaps it has simply bedded down.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Macbeth<\/em> for a dying world<\/strong><\/p>\n

Enough speculation \u2013 let\u2019s talk props<\/a>. The production is set, we\u2019re told, \u2018Now, after a civil war.\u2019 The breakdown isn\u2019t merely political, but environmental. There\u2019s barely a natural element in Rae Smith\u2019s design, or a natural fabric in the clothes designed and degraded by Moritz Junge. The play\u2019s choking fogs might be the fallout of pollution, the natural world it invokes choked by plastics. This is a Macbeth<\/em> for a dying world.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t expect an early modern kingdom or a medieval hierarchy. They\u2019re long gone. What\u2019s at stake here is survival \u2013 Macbeth and his fellow warlords are fighting for dominion over the scraps. Landscape has become mere landfill. The stage is backed, and sometimes carved up, by tall curtains made of shredded black bin bags. There\u2019s nothing breathable, nothing sustainable in view. Imagine Wall-E<\/em> without the cute. This is the world we\u2019ve undone. Plastic isn\u2019t just surrounding these people; they are intimate with it. Macbeth winds gaffer tape around his chest to secure his makeshift breastplate. His wife\u2019s power dress is a semi-derelict sequinned frock, its gaps bandaged up by rustling plastic sheets.<\/p>\n

As the whales<\/a> tell us, plastic bags outlive the oceans. The Swedish invention<\/a> of the 1960s covered the globe in convenience, and polyethylene pouches remain the most widespread resource in this despoiled environment. So many uses for even the flimsiest carrier! Tug it on your head as partywear, or wave it like a flag at the post-battle rave. With something more sturdy, you can brandish aloft a severed head, or shove some slaughtered babes in their distraught mother\u2019s face. Whether you\u2019re after a weapon or accessory, plastic bags are the choice \u2013 which is just as well, as there\u2019s bugger all else.<\/p>\n

The Macbeths are gasping for power, sure \u2013 especially in this world where you climb or get crushed. But on a more fundamental level, they ache for a good wash and a decent night\u2019s sleep. Murky souls are embodied in besmirched skin and eyes sore with wakefulness. The Macbeths speak about sleep and water a lot \u2013 the little water that clears them of this deed; the season of all natures, sleep \u2013 but there\u2019s none here, not in this production. They\u2019re knackered. They\u2019re parched.<\/p>\n

Some water must have survived social collapse, but we don\u2019t see it. There\u2019s just the fiery poteen that the warlords gulp, or a couple of precious cans used to entice a pair of scally murderers. You can almost feel the gore and grime after battle, but no one can wash it off. When Macbeth kills Duncan, his hands are sticky scarlet \u2013 but all he can do is try to swipe it off on his t-shirt, on his socks. It\u2019s hardly a deep clean for his conscience \u2013 you see his palms stained a lingering red in the following scene.<\/p>\n

New life feels like a bitter joke<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duff and Kinnear have a less sexual, less intimate relationship than many Macbeths. There\u2019s nothing here to nourish their love in this near-death world. They can\u2019t wash, can\u2019t refresh, and for all their talk of children, can\u2019t regenerate. New life feels like a bitter joke.<\/p>\n

And how can they sleep? What comfort is here, in these hastily requisitioned bunkers? A concrete for the pair to plot in. What looks like the remnants of a classroom or community hall for the Banquo-haunted banquet. Where would you sleep? On what? Plastic bags don\u2019t make blankets, in all their unwelcoming scratch and rustle. Duff\u2019s desperate Lady M may have thought that assassination would be an end, but it\u2019s just a beginning \u2013 a means to a cruelly extended middle that can only be resolved by death.<\/p>\n

Norris\u2019 Macbeth<\/em> isn\u2019t the perfect production. It\u2019s too disjointed, the bits that often struggle to make sense \u2013 the witches, Duncan\u2019s unfit-for-purpose son Malcolm \u2013 make less than usual. And it\u2019s a world you itch to leave. To dream of a world without its strangulation of plastic. To have a wash. To have a sleep.<\/p>\n

Photo by\u00a0Brinkhoff\/Moegenburg<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow David on Twitter: @mrdavidjays<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rufus Norris\u2019 bereft, survivalist production of Macbeth was the show that launched a thousand thinkpieces about his regime at the National Theatre. The reviews were overwhelmingly hostile, and this apparently misfired Shakespeare followed on the heels of a series of mishit new plays in the Olivier Theatre, the company\u2019s flagship space. Was Norris\u2019 time up? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[65,322,321,32,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-1592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-national-theatre","9":"tag-props","10":"tag-propwatch","11":"tag-shakespeare","12":"tag-theatre","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1592"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1596,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1592\/revisions\/1596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}