Review – Bewitching Macbeth

The vision behind Bewitching Macbeth is a noble one; the aim was to make Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy more accessible by fusing it with music and dance. According to the director, this was to help the audience gain insight into Macbeth’s actions and the emotions of the story. It is certainly a fascinating concept. Unfortunately, in this case, it is poorly executed.

A low budget is not always limiting to a production. In many cases, it can help create intimacy between the audience and the performers. In Bewitching Macbeth, however, every element highlights the low production values and gives the performance a consistently awkward tone. From the witch’s garish costumes to the overly simplistic lighting, it all just screams “high school production”.

Had the performances been effective enough to mask the less-than-ideal costumes and lighting the play might have stood a chance. Alas, this wasn’t the case – for the most part Leof Kingsford-Smith, as Macbeth, provides a passable performance, but he brings nothing new to the role. Rather, his performance is reminiscent of all the old stereotypes of Shakespearean acting. Shakti, meanwhile, brings to mind all the most infamous conventions of contemporary dance. Representing the witches, she has minimal dialogue and instead communicates through dance, which borders on unbearable and distracts from rather than illuminates Macbeth’s dialogue – there is entirely too much hair-whipping, arm-waving and foot-slapping for the audience to take the performance seriously.

Overall, Bewitching Macbeth is a sad waste of a great concept. In a different incarnation, with fitting music, better choreography and more engaging performers, Bewitching Macbeth could have been astounding. Sadly though, this version, at this Fringe, is simply an incoherent mess.