Sitting on a gantry watching Lady Macbeth lying in a pool of red silk, whilst a witch whistles across the black space below, I wonder just what’s down there. A compacted, dusty floor is my best bet, seeing as I’m on the archaeological site of Bankside’s first ever theatre, and only London’s fifth.
So when the Stygian gloom lifts I’m more than a little perplexed to find a black mirrored pool, with people scurrying about on the far shore like on a beach. In retrospect, the drip, drip, drip should have given it away but I simply assumed it was a sound effect.
It’s a startling theatrical space: damp, dark, cavernous and as steeped in history as any place could be. Shakespeare himself might well have trod the boards where I’m sitting, as a little way into the play a red rope light embedded in the floor is turned on and it’s clear that my feet, if not my body, are on the actual stage. I defy anyone to not be thrilled at that realisation – and what must the cast feel when they’re performing his words? It’s a closer Bardic experience for them than playing the Globe will ever be, seeing as the original of that theatre is not under the thatched roof down by the Thames, but nestled away under a Premier Inn round the corner.
I’ve come to see WHO Productions new take on Macbeth and it’s promising before anyone’s said a word. The atmosphere is set by sounds – whistling, a heartbeat drum, the aforementioned drip, drip, drip – so when the BBC News theme begins and a broadcast tells us of the corporate takeover of a large company (Crown Holdings – how apt) and Macbeth charges in dressed in a suit and with a mobile in his hand, the stillness is more than just shattered: it’s had a stick of dynamite stuck up its bum.
Things calm down a little and we get as much into the flow as we can with this odd production. Neither one thing nor another, WHO mash up styles like they’re going cheap in a sale. There’s a corporate vibe from Macbeth himself (Clive Moore), an African tribal one from the witches, and a spooky, ghostly one from Darkness (Lucien Campbell) who I don’t remember being in the play when I studied it at school!
Dressed in a black cape, the figure of Darkness pushes and pulls Macbeth, leans into him, lets himself be leaned into, envelops, crushes, and sometimes whispers. It’s a physical presence that just doesn’t work as his reason for being there isn’t clear enough. And that sums up the two big interlinked problems with this piece: the clarity issue, and the fact that it’s neither dance nor straight theatre. This second needn’t be a problem of course, but it is in this piece because of the first.
Moore, swigging whisky from his own private minibar, is good at showing Macbeth’s mercurial nature: one minute he’s all sound and fury, the next preternaturally calm, flummoxing his wife with his moods.
Francesca De Sica doubles up as Lady Macbeth and Banquo which, again, could work but doesn’t because of the lack of perspicuity in the dual roles. I can’t hear a lot of the dialogue from the witches as they all have heavy accents (Italian I presume, as WOH describes itself as having Italian roots) even though they’re so close to me, sometimes practically on my lap.
Being a very small playing space, the piece feels suitably claustrophobic, especially with its use of red curtains and cloth, but it opens out nicely by utilizing the space round the ‘lake’ where the actors are lit with torches or rudimentary lighting. I can’t see anyones face when they’re there, even though it’s no more than 20 meters away and that’s a bit disorientating when you try hard to catch what they’re saying as it bounces round the concrete walls.
This special venue could be such a fantastic backdrop for the right piece but alas, WOH’s Macbeth just isn’t that. But now I’ve been, I’m hooked on the place. They not only have performances, but talks about such things as bear baiting on Bankside, and they’re also on the brink of getting the funding to excavate a site that’s been left in a state of suspended animation for well over two decades, since it was discovered in 1989.
Bankside is a reclaimed marsh with a correspondingly high water table. The remains, once exposed to the air, began to deteriorate and so were covered over with water to preserve them – a bit like the Mary Rose I suppose. And hence the unexpected lake.
I stay around after the performance and talk to Pepe, one of the chief volunteers at The Rose (yep, it’s all run by volunteers, folks) who is obviously passionately in love with the place. I look at the illustrations on the walls which show what they think it would have looked like in Elizabethan (and briefly Jacobean – it was left to rot in 1603) times, and I fall in love with the place too.
Even if you don’t catch a show there, it’s well worth a look around. Thanks to the volunteers it’s open every Saturday from 10am to 5pm. Entry is free but a donation is gratefully grabbed and will go towards matching the funding they’re hoping to receive from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
What: Macbeth
Where: The Rose Theatre site, Park Street, London (about a 3 minute walk from the Globe)
When: Tues – Sat 7.30pm, Sunday 3pm only
Tickets: £12/£10
For more information: CLICK HERE: http://www.rosetheatre.org.uk/
Would I go again: Yes, to the Rose, and yes to another of the performances they have lined up
Two stars
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