Your Union is Standing Firm

2 stars

I don’t remember much about Macbeth, having only studied it briefly in my early secondary school days. While I may have forgotten the plot and the characters’ names, I could never forget the feeling of empowerment I experienced after learning of my king-slayer potential wrought from the circumstances of my caesarean birth.? You may have your full-term, spontaneous vaginal deliveries but I was born to topple tyrannous regimes.

Macbeth, with its bubbling cauldrons, moving forests, and ferocious inter-clan warring, is a play that demands powerful visuals and creative use of the theatre space. Unfortunately, DramSoc’s production just didn’t deliver. Using budget constraints as an excuse can only get you so far in explaining the complete lack of attention to aesthetic and design. The backdrops, vital in transporting the audience to specific settings, were merely pieces of card stuck together to form shapeless, detail-less canvases. One might as well lower green screens instead and have the audience imagine a castle wall. The costumes, if you could call black t-shirts and jeans a costume, were disappointing even by college production standards. Bizarrely, the witches were dressed as post-war office secretaries, further adding to the directorial confusion surrounding the production. The lack of finish may have been acceptable in primary school but given Imperial’s talented student population, the wealth of art/fashion clubs, and the members’ own purchasing power, the show should not have ended up looking so nightmarishly amateur.

The acting, for the most part, was fine. Yuyu Lee played the titular role well, if a little too cheerfully pre-regicide. While his labile mood may have worked perfectly to highlight Macbeth’s increasing insanity as the play progressed, it seemed out of place for the grizzled war veteran we were introduced to at the beginning. There were two standout performances for me. Nick Twyman, playing King Duncan, was a delight to watch, expertly delivering his lines with style and warmth. It is one thing to understand and regurgitate the lines of a Shakespeare play, quite another to speak each word as though it is spontaneous thought. The other standout was Valerie Lau. While Twyman gave a comfortable, laid back performance, Lau brought forth the opposite. Her MacDuff, trembling with righteous fury after the slaughter of his family, carried the second act with a dramatic intensity befitting a larger stage and a better sword.

It is unfortunate that the talent on stage was let down by such poor direction. Even the lighting and sound were poorly utilised. Prop movement and scene-changes were coordinated poorly with blackouts and sound effects were so sporadic that it distracted rather than supported the action on stage.

In the end, there was little to commend in this production of Macbeth save the cast. Next time DramSoc puts on a show, I hope they’re willing to at least shell out the £2 for retractable prop knives.