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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 10, No. 1. February 28, 1947

Macbeth

Macbeth

It is with some misgivings I attempt to evaluate the recent Ngaio Marsh production of Macbeth. I find in discussing my impressions with others, that they are either very enthusiastic or strongly condemn the performance, while I find neither of these extremes answer my own impressions.

The actual technicalities of production I thought were excellent, the settings were those of an artist, the groupings were tastefully arranged, the banquet scene for its simplicity yet at the same time striking effectiveness must be recognised as one of the best seen in this town for many years. With such a background the play moved with pace, which is, after all, one of the most important things in presenting Shakespeare, for Shakespeare played poorly is bad but Shakespeare played dully is awful. As a play, then, I feel it had pace, vigour and unity, but the question I began to ask myself at the end of the first act was, "Is this Macbeth as I interpret it? Or as it is commonly interpreted? Or have I become too conservative and resent any varying interpretation?"

It was largely in the question of pace that I found myself most disturbed and disappointed. The pace was so well maintained that the scenes for me lacked variation and subtlety; they roared along at an even tempo of desperation, Macbeth attacking his soliloquies with almost the same tempo he used to address the "lily livered loon." One instance which struck me particularly was his "tomorrow and tomorrow" speech. He has just heard the Queen is dead; he is, I feel, in a thoughtful mood which is interrupted by the messenger. Our Macbeth, instead of dispairing, attacked the lines with a vicious impatience. Perhaps this is the correct interpretation but I did not like it.

and his Lady

Lady Macbeth, too, I found surprising. To me she has always been a swiftly moving, well organised, and intensely efficient woman, until, of course, her breakdown. She has powerful passions, certainly, but they are exultant, rising rapidly towards intense climaxes. That was my preconceived picture of Lady Macbeth, but instead I found a slim girl with an amazingly deep voice giving slow pause and emphasis to every syllable. I cannot help feeling that had she emphasised thoughts and not words the character would have been more convincing.

It is however, only too easy to find fault with any performance. I could possibly fill another column on the way I feel Macbeth's character should develop from the simple soldier to the scheming tyrant, and how I feel that development of character was missing from the play presented at the Concert Chamber, but such a negative attitude is a poor reward for the obvious effort and sincere enthusiasm which must have gone into the production which gave me and many others an enjoyable night's entertainment.

J. R. McCreary.