CALLING a production Shakespeare's Macbeth didn't augur well. After all, who else could it have been written by? The affectedness of the title permeated this production. Macbeth is a universal story of vaulting ambition destroying a good man and regicide resulting in the horrors of civil strife. It has been set in every continent and social strata so merely plonking this wonderful tragedy in a supposedly Asian context is neither innovative nor radical. Indeed, were it not for the excellent onstage percussive accompaniment and the much less successful use of Indian drag queens as the witches, this show could have been anywhere at any time.

While the pace was generally good and some of the staging colourful and interesting, only a few of the actors spoke lines with expression or conviction. There was little love of language and even less exploration of character. Here we had tame storytelling with movement and music, a pale shadow of the dramatic menace and tension that should suffuse every element of this great play.

Lady Macbeth delivered most of her lines in a monotone and there was no passion in her relationship with Macbeth. The composite role of porter, nurse and servant did achieve some insightful humour, but the use of a stereotypical and at times indecipherable accent was a glaring error.

Actors kept their distance from each other with Victorian decorum. Unconvincing fight sequences only served to highlight how strangely static was the whole production. There were too many poor players upon this stage.

John Billington