We arrived at the theatre half an hour before it was about to begin. I looked at the bill board and I saw a picture of a man and a woman in modern day clothing. So I thought that Macbeth was shown in a modern version. I found that that had given the play a false impression, maybe it was done for children as a pull saying that it wasn’t like the normal Shakespearian play. The play Macbeth was divided into two separate halves. The 1st half started unexpectedly with a bang.

The beginning was of the 3 weird sisters. In the book the sisters were portrayed to be old and decrepit but they were three young ladies (Jayne McKenna, Alexandra Moen and Claire Swinburne. ). The characters in the play were a variety raining from actors on movies like Sean bean who played a great Macbeth to fresh actresses straight out of LAMDA and the ages ranged from over 50 to under 15. The prediction of the Cawdor title and the throne for Macbeth, and kingship for Banquo’s descendants was very gripping.

Each scene was show to us in a way to understand it and they did not always used the Shakespearian language. Sean bean was Macbeth with a Newcastle accent but you could not really tell at times, but there were little hints that made the character more enjoyable. Although I knew what was going to be said the actors acting it out gave life to it. The highlight of the play was when Macbeth was finally killed by Mucduff because it was the main plot of the play I felt and it happened in a memorable way.

I will remember the special effects because the director Edward Hall had inserted modern effects like sounds of helicopters and machine guns. I would change the scene in the second Act when Malcolm and Maduff were having a twenty minute conversation it was very long and boring I could see people falling asleep and it seemed to go on forever. I didn’t keep my attention on the conversation but everything else I was gripped onto.

The atmosphere of the characters/Actors was very high it seemed to me that they were really involved in the play of Macbeth and I can’t really blame them because Macbeth is a really good -play to get into. The Stage Traffic ran smoothly like clockwork. There were no blimps in the taking off and putting on of props. The actors put the props on the stage, like for instance in the dinner with Macbeth seeing the ghost of Banquo the soldiers all brought the tables, chairs ect which I thought worked better than waiting for a backstage to take something off and holding up the play.

The scenery was never changed thought the whole of the play which was sometimes a bit confusing but they made it up with flag so show that it was the castle or lamps to show it was the bedroom. The use of space was quite big. It was well used but because I was sitting in the balcony what you could see was very limited. Music was used quite a bit in Macbeth like in the coronation of Macbeth the Requiem mass music was played. Lots of special effects were involved like sounds of bombs and real flames coming up from the stage as Macbeth walked past them.

Also the normal smoke canisters were seen. There were a lot of light changes you but you mainly saw very bleak colours. I think that showed the depressed state Macbeth and Lady Macbeth was in. The costumes weren’t really Shakespearian were the modern but not to the extent of the picture of the program. King Duncan wore white attire with a long white jacket that was kind of modern, other bits were but more of the clothing was of a later era.