Reviewed by:

• Macbeth by William Shakespeare
• Paul Innes

Major theatrical productions were understandably on hiatus in the United Arab Emirates during the COVID-19 emergency. Large-scale events are beginning to resume, however, and the cooperative production of Macbeth—jointly produced by English Touring Theatre, Northern Stage, Shakespeare North Playhouse, and Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg—was a landmark event in post-pandemic Dubai.

The set remained unchanged throughout the performance, varied only in its presentation by the use of props, drapes, and screens mounted on the walls above the main playing space. The costuming was relatively neutral modern dress, and many of the minor roles were played by very young women. The sound design, featuring music by Louis Armstrong, for example, gave the production a 1920s feel, presumably intended to convey a society on the brink of catastrophe by conjuring up imminent stock market crashes and impending war.

The action of this Macbeth began with Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy from act 1, scene 5, so it was clear from the outset that this was going to be no ordinary presentation of the play. The focus on an individual character out of sync with the standard text of the play demonstrated a particularly intense emphasis on the main characters. The production continued throughout to rewrite the text by inserting plot elements—especially those relating to the Weird Sisters—at various unexpected points in the visual and narrative structure of events.

Laura Elsworthy as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. (Photo: The Other Richard.)

The result was a psychological character study of Macbeth’s descent into wild tyranny. After the banquet scene, for instance, Macbeth isolated himself even from his wife by leading her into their bedroom through a rear door before slamming it on her and [End Page 231] drawing drapes across it. The production consistently concentrated on Macbeth’s centrality, with the effect of turning the play into something like a horror story. At several points, Macbeth mimed the Weird Sisters almost as though he were possessed; the screens above the stage accompanied his performance with the sound of voices that would not be out of place in The Exorcist. No actors played the roles of the witches; the combination of screen imagery and Macbeth’s ventriloquism worked to modernize characters that can cause so many problems for contemporary audiences, thus avoiding kitsch presentations that verge on cackling crones.

Mike Noble (Macbeth) and Laura Elsworthy (Lady Macbeth) in Macbeth. (Photo: The Other Richard.)

Such an intense concentration on the protagonist no doubt can work on the Shakespeare North Playhouse’s intimate stage in Liverpool, but it does not necessarily travel well in an enormous auditorium like the Dubai Opera House, which can comfortably seat two thousand. As the play was about to begin, a sound clip played that was meant to give some cultural information about paganism in early medieval Scotland, but it could not be heard in the upper circle. Due to the size of the auditorium, I found it difficult at times to follow the action and understand key moments in the reimagined plot, especially since Macbeth himself spoke the various prophecies. The intensity of the performance style, reinforced by the cutting and shifting of text, suffered in such a huge space.

The extreme focus on Macbeth did remove some of the political nuances of the play’s two versions of Scottish kingship. In this production, however, any lost opportunities were compensated for by Duncan’s appearing quite powerful. In addition, the ambitious rearrangement of the plot worked well to keep the audience aware of Macduff and Malcolm’s importance, which can be difficult to maintain in a conventional production due to their long absence from the stage. The choreographed violence at the end of the play made for a grand finale, with Macbeth breaking young Siward’s neck in a frenzy accompanied by gruesome horror-film sound effects. And like many other modern productions, this one showed the combat between Macbeth and Macduff, a necessary choice for...

 审阅者：

• 
  威廉·莎士比亚的《麦克白》
•  保罗·英尼斯

在 COVID-19 紧急情况期间，阿拉伯联合酋长国的主要戏剧作品暂停，这是可以理解的。然而，大型活动开始恢复，由英国巡回剧院、北方舞台、莎士比亚北方剧场和卢森堡剧院联合制作的《麦克白》成为疫情后迪拜的标志性活动。

整个表演过程中，布景保持不变，仅通过使用道具、窗帘和安装在主表演空间上方墙壁上的屏幕在呈现方式上有所不同。服装是相对中性的现代服饰，许多小角色都是由非常年轻的女性扮演。例如，以路易斯·阿姆斯特朗 (Louis Armstrong) 的音乐为特色的声音设计给这部作品带来了 1920 年代的感觉，大概是为了通过让人联想到即将发生的股市崩盘和即将到来的战争来传达一个处于灾难边缘的社会。

这部《麦克白》的动作是从第一幕第五场麦克白夫人的独白开始的，所以从一开始就很清楚，这将不是该剧的普通表演。对单个角色的关注与戏剧的标准文本不同步，这表明对主要角色的特别强烈的重视。制作过程自始至终都在重写文本，在事件的视觉和叙事结构中的各个意想不到的点插入情节元素——尤其是与怪异姐妹相关的元素。

劳拉·埃尔斯沃西在《麦克白》中饰演麦克白夫人。 （照片：另一个理查德。）

结果是对麦克白陷入狂暴暴政的心理特征研究。例如，在宴会场景结束后，麦克白甚至将自己与妻子隔离开来，他带领她从后门进入他们的卧室，然后把门摔在她身上，并在上面拉上窗帘。该剧的制作始终集中在麦克白的中心地位，从而使该剧变成了恐怖故事。有好几处，麦克白模仿怪异姐妹，几乎就像着了魔一样。舞台上方的屏幕伴随着他的表演，伴随着声音，这在《驱魔人》中不会显得格格不入。没有演员扮演女巫的角色；屏幕图像和麦克白的腹语术相结合，使可能给当代观众带来许多问题的人物现代化，从而避免了近乎咯咯笑的老太婆的庸俗表演。

《麦克白》中的迈克·诺布尔（麦克白）和劳拉·埃尔斯沃西（麦克白夫人）。 （照片：另一个理查德。）

这种对主角的高度集中无疑可以在利物浦莎士比亚北方剧院的私密舞台上发挥作用，但在像迪拜歌剧院这样可以舒适地容纳 2000 人的巨大礼堂中，它不一定能顺利进行。当戏剧即将开始时，播放了一段声音片段，旨在提供一些有关中世纪早期苏格兰异教的文化信息，但在上层圈中听不到。由于礼堂的大小，我有时发现很难跟踪情节并理解重新想象的情节中的关键时刻，特别是因为麦克白本人说出了各种预言。文本的剪切和移动强化了表演风格的强度，在如此巨大的空间中受到了影响。

对麦克白的极度关注确实消除了该剧两个版本的苏格兰王权的一些政治细微差别。然而，在这部作品中，任何失去的机会都被邓肯的强大表现所弥补。此外，雄心勃勃的情节重新安排也很好地让观众认识到麦克达夫和马尔科姆的重要性，而由于他们长期缺席舞台，这种重要性在传统制作中很难维持。戏剧结尾处精心设计的暴力场面营造了一个盛大的结局，麦克白在疯狂中扭断了年轻的西沃德的脖子，伴随着可怕的恐怖电影音效。和许多其他现代作品一样，这部作品展示了麦克白和麦克达夫之间的战斗，这是……的必要选择。