A Stalinist Macbeth
Amanda Shaw reviews Macbeth in First Things.
The director, Rupert Goold, masterfully depicts the evil of power and, more terrifying, the power of evil-yet he doesn’t go about this in any traditional, warty-nosed-witch sort of way. His production, starring Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood, debuted last year in England and, after finishing its run in Brooklyn, will be moving on to Broadway.
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[T]his production is somehow both awe-full and terrifying. Bestial behavior and violence can cause us to feel pity or disgust. It is when they are shrouded in feigned ignorance and quotidian merriment-when they wear human faces-that they become truly horrible. Stars, hide your fires, says Macbeth. Let not light see my black and deep desires: / The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be, / Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
I am skeptical of the Stalinist setting; I find such anachronisms frequently distracting. But the review suggests that the setting may have been put to good use here and offers other good reasons to keep an eye on this production.
