Saturday 30 April 2022 The Guardian •News^31
Theatre review
Craig’s a man of action,
but magic is missing
Alexis SoloskiF
or tragedy to really tear
your heart out, it has to
feel preventable. What
if Juliet’s messenger
had arrived on time?
What if Othello had
trusted his wife? Watching the
brisk, mordant Broadway revival
of Macbeth, which stars a muscled,
de-Bonded Daniel Craig, you might
entertain another what-if: what if
medieval Scotland had maximally
eff ective therapy?
Sam Gold’s production is
performed on a seemingly bare
stage, designed by Christine Jones
and lit, thrillingly – in shockingblues, reds and greens – by Jane
Cox. It begins with a precis of
attitudes towards early modern
witchcraft, delivered, drolly, by
Michael Patrick Thornton. An
incantation follows. One cast
member (Danny Wolohan, later to
endure worse) is hung upside down
in an inverted cross while other s
stir a bubbling pot. Is that smell
garlic? Or something more sinister?
Still, this swift, savvy Macbeth
never winds its charm too tightly;
only rarely does it feel unearthly.
Instead, Craig’s burly Macbeth,
clad handsomely in Suttirat Larlab’s
modern dress costumes, is every
inch a man of action , even in a
silky bathrobe, entirely convincing
in motion, less persuasive when
zipping through Macbeth’s
equivocations. If he is in blood
stepped in so far, it doesn’t seem to
bother him. Any decent castle has
maid service.
Instead, this Macbeth inhabitslast long here. The one exception is
Grantham Coleman’s upstanding
Macduff , who resists the urging
of Malcolm (Asia Kate Dillon) to
man up.
“Dispute it like a man,” Malcolm
insists. Instead, Macduff insists on
making space for his grief and his
weakness. “I shall do so,” he says.
“But I must also feel it as a man. I
cannot but remember such things
were, that were most precious
to me.” But in contrast to most
productions, Macduff ’s victory
feels less than assured.
There’s pleasure to be found here
and a macabre wit. The potion that
begins the second half has some
ghastly ingredients. Poor Wolohan.
Gold’s direction is focused and
specifi c. But there’s something
unexamined and underscrutinised
in this version.
This Macbeth doesn’t change
much from the fi rst scene to the
last. Lady M transforms, though
this happens almost as soon as we
meet her. And after the fi rst half,
the play mostly shunts her off stage.
(Well, to the back of the stage,
characters here rarely disappear.
Especially dead ones.)
There is shock – short, sharp- and surprises and some playful,
inventive staging, but little that
feels truly risky or dangerous.
Despite the charms and potions,
there’s not so much magic here.
Macbeth
Longacre Theatre, New York
★★★☆☆a one-man culture of toxic
masculinity, prisoner to his
vaulting ambition, unable to accept
any personal weakness. Infi rm of
purpose? Please.
If this Macbeth could use some
time on an analyst’s couch, he and
Lady Macbeth (a dynamic Ruth
Negga) could also use some couples
counselling. Negga’s Lady Macbeth
is an enabler and an abettor asking
to be unsexed so that she can
achieve the masculine ruthlessness
her husband so clearly values.
The characters who display more
sympathy and fellow feeling – Paul
Lazar’s bluff Duncan, Amber Gray’s
crystalline Banquo – don’t tend toThere are shocks and
surprises – and some
playful, inventive
staging – but little
that feels risky
or dangerous▲ Daniel Craig during curtain
call for opening night in New York
PHOTOGRAPH: BRUCE GLIKAS/WIREIMAGE