Je suis encore vivant!

Version française de mon post sur cette mise en scène de Macbeth au théâtre de Sceaux datant du 21 février 2010 ici.

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I remembered I already wanted to translate my comment on Declan Donnellan’s staging of MacBeth some time ago when I read an article in the New Yorker about the Merchant of Venice (now shown in New York with Al Pacino). A the beginning the author tells his first contacts with Shakespeare and I can’t resist to quote him here :

“Part of the reason that Shakespeare remains one of the handful of writers who engage generation after generation of readers has to do with the way he is taught, or, at least, was taught in the New York City public-school system of my youth. Back then, in the mid-seventies, students balanced their attempts to understand iambic pentameter with recitations from the text itself; you absorbed Shakespeare’s almost otherworldly skill at threading ideas and emotions through groups of syllables by saying the words aloud. If you opened yourself up to the world the Bard created, it could change who you were. After reciting a compassionate character’s speech, for instance, you felt wiser and more loving. Shakespeare had so much to say about the nature of evil, too. Reading Cassius’ and Richard III’s speeches out loud inextricably linked them to my teen-age universe; Shakespeare’s crooks weren’t so different from the self-deluding, destructive, and slick messengers of doom who hung around my neighborhood.”

It reminded me the first time I had to study Shakespeare. I was already 21 years old and it was The Tempest. It took me two entire days to finish and understand the play. It took me a few days more to get the puns and all the cultural references. But even though the play was the most energy and time consuming one I had ever read, it was also the first play that really struck a chord with me while reading (in general, I can only appreciate plays through representations, and not through reading). And as the New Yorker journalist put it, I also had that odd yet pleasing feeling that this play could actually make me be better in a way.

Here’s the translation of a comment on Macbeth (director : Declan Donnellan) at the Sceaux theatre.

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I don’t know very well and I’m not a complete fan of Macbeth (I had started to read it in English and I must say that I had not really been carried away). But the representation given by Declan Donnellan’s company, Cheek by Jowl, resulted in a fascinating and very impressive play in every way. It was impressive first regarding the story itself (it is a very dark play that explores the most sinister sides of human nature), second because of its staging, which brillantly creates a mysterious and oppressive atmosphere, and finally it was also impressive from a technical standpoint – especially as regards the actors’ expressive and nervous acting.

Macbeth, the thane of Glamis and valorous army chief of king Duncan for whom he’s just defeated Norway, meets on his returning trip three witches who tell him that he will be crowned thane of Cawdor and future king. From there on, the one who was a loyal and courageous general, will be transforming into a man who is tormented by ambition and the the darkest intentions. Above all after some correspondents of the king had confirmed him the witches’ prophecy, by announcing him that he was now the sovereign of the thane of Cawdor, the former duke having been deposed after betraying the king. When Macbeth breaks the news of the prophecy with his spouse, while the king is going to their castle to seal their friendship, Macbeth’s wife encourages him to force destiny and to kill the king during his sleep. This is then for this couple won by the vilest cupidity only the first step of a long decline towards evil and madness.

As for me, evil – in, as it were, a manichean sense, Evil with capital E – is the main theme of the play : how evil can seize human beings and lead them to commit the most terrible acts until killing innocents and fomenting a reign of terror on a country. However, Macbeth’s character is in itself much subtler and consequently abolutely fascinating. It is true that he is consumed by ambition and the willingness to kill the King to take his royal place. Yet he is from the beginning consumed by doubt and fear, and after the deed, by remorse and fear of celestial fallouts. And if he finally takes action, it’s less because he has the ability for it, but because he’s encouraged by Lady Macbeth and the witches’ predictions, forcing him therefore to accomplish this murder nearly on an impulse. Here can be found weak people’s valiance, the valiance that is only drawn from others’ support, above all if these others demonstrate a nearly maternal and protecting behaviour, or if these others are supernatural as in the case of Lady Macbeth and the witches respectively. Macbeth is in the end less a man who’s maleficent at his core than a man with rather earthly ambitions and who is manipulated like a puppet by forces that are way more superior to him and deceiving. Carried away by this implacable machine, he little by little slapses into an evil frenzy. As the director underlines in this video, in the end Macbeth finally deals less with a couple that commits a murder than a couple who becomes aware that they commited a murder, that they made something so terrible that they can’t perceive its full horror, something that will eventually overwhelm them.

The excellent acting of the comedians who play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth conveys this interpretation of these two characters : Will Keen is a nervous Macbeth, devored by doubt and beset by weakness, who’s nearly hacullinated by his murderous insanity. As for Anastasia Hille, she renders a fascinating Lady Macbeth, whose insane accents in her voice reveals a certain lunacy, but who is also determined to commit the murder, before remorse and guilt seize her.

Declan Donnellan’s staging brillantly renders all these feelings that are jostling around. Since the very first scene with the three witches’ apparition, on a bare stage and a lighting that plunges us into the darkness, the audience is drawn to a very dark and mysterious atmosphere which above all exudes the forthcoming tragedy. This atmosphere that is “simply” created with this light and this bare and dark stage, as well as with the actors’ costumes who are all dressed in black, suffice to bring us to the gloomy heart of the tragedy. There’s no set changing during the play, and the actors use nearly no props. Thus for instance the flames that wreck Scotland are recreated by MacDuff’s face and voice which are full of despair. Thus the scenes of fights and murders are mimed, which sometimes lead to nearly metaphorical deaths that nonetheless don’t lose anything of their intensity. Thanks to that atmosphere and the actors’ amazing acting, half of the way is done when it comes to create the misty moor, the castle walls and the feast given in honour of MacBeth when he becomes king… The rest is simply handled by the audience’s imagination. Yet, some staging arrangements manage to make some scenes even more harrowing. For instance when the ghost of Banquo, who was murdered by MacBeth, returns to haunt his murderer, his head seems to frigteningly float in the night. A violin is also played throughtout the play at its neuralgic moments and makes them even more terrifying.

The only regret I may express about this play is that all the scenes were following very fastly and that hardly was one scene over the next one was already taking place, which doesn’t let the audience breathe a little and absorb what they had just seen. It’s especially the case when Macbeth dies, and right after this the new king of Scotland is crowned. This seems to set Macbeth’s death at the same level as the others’ and eventually presents it as an unportant event. This tends to remove emotion from the play.

But this undoubtedly is the only small weakness of a play which is all in all brillant and whose actors and staging leave us admirative and enthralled. The dark and tragic atmosphere, as well as the interpretation of the two main characters are particularly breath-taking. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, with their dilemnas, lunacy, ambition and doubts (to summarize in a few words the psychology of characters about whom hundreds of pages have been written!), are captivating. I would also add that to hear some Shakespeare in its original tongue with the English accent is also a great pleasure (even though I could understand only one word out of two), but that’s another story!

Tags: declan donnellan, macbeth, shakespeare