Confronted by a premium room in an up-market hotel chain, you might be forgiven for wondering whether you’ve wandered into the wrong show. But the message on the large centre-stage plasma screen announces that The Royal Shelton Hotel at Dunsinane welcomes Lord and Lady Macbeth… and here is Lady M, casually switching on the TV. This is a multi-media adaptation in which the early scenes – Macbeth’s victories, his triumphant return and the encounter with the witches - are all mediated through news reports and music videos streamed to Lady M’s TV. Later scenes, such as Macbeth’s coronation and Malcolm’s final victory speech are also seen on film. The witches seem to have Eastern European accents and later turn up as increasingly sinister chambermaids and porters, controlling not only the state of the room but also the fate of its occupants. Although this is in many respects a fascinating production, it continually lurches from being clever and compelling, to being nonsensical and dull. Casual Macbeth Paradoxically, the news reporting works well, but seems at times too formal, whereas Macbeth, when we finally see him in the flesh, seems too casual, both in manner and in speech – as if infected by the banality of the hotel setting.
 | | A bloody prophesy for the Macbeths |
Curiously, the minor characters are generally more successfully realised than the main protagonists. The hotel room concept works well for the witches, but it is surely important that Lady Macbeth is at home, on her territory; that Macduff’s family is murdered in its nest; and Banquo’s murder seems to occur at the hotel, whereas the whole idea is to kill him in some isolated spot – not on the doorstep. The Porter at the Gate is amusingly reinterpreted and skillfully performed, by Christian Rodska, as a hired entertainer. But in moving it’s position from just after the murder to before, much of the impact is lost. This is the major flaw: somewhere in the complex processes of collaboration and interpretation, in fitting together sequences filmed three months earlier with live performance and technical effects, the vitality of the relationship between the Macbeths has been lost, and we do not feel the tragedy of their sharply delineated disintegration. There is a telling moment when Macbeth, having discovered that Macduff is not ‘of woman born’, still decides to fight on. At this point we should briefly glimpse the old warrior and feel a sense of loss… but in this production he never earns that respect. Splice Productions was formed this year by Robert Gwilym (Macbeth and film director) and Katharine Rogers (Lady Macbeth and stage director) to create accessible productions of the classics, using multi-media techniques wedded to the ‘power of live performance’. The fusion of stage and screen has obviously been fruitful in many respects, but has left the central characters distinctly lacking in voltage. Despite my reservations, this is still a production well-worth seeing - and I guarantee it will give you plenty to talk about afterwards. | 
