In 2008, as I was preparing to direct Macbeth for Magic Circle, I made a trip to Broadway to see British director Rupert Goold’s production starring Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood. I came out of the theater three hours later stunned. That production remains one of the best productions of Shakespeare I’ve ever seen, and it was a huge influence for me when I directed the play. It’s one of the few times where I have really been afraid while watching live theater (another was the world premiere of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman at the National Theatre). At the performance I attended, there were moments that made about half the audience scream.
Director Rupert Goold set Macbeth in a subterranean kitchen/morgue with an elevator that at one point gushed blood (he also directed a production of The Tempest with Patrick Stewart set in an Arctic wasteland). As long as I live, I don’t think I’ll see a better Macbeth than Patrick Stewart. His mastery of the text was brutally clear, and there was something so sad about seeing a Macbeth as old as Stewart. That he’s had a wonderful life and throws it all away. I loved how he wasn’t afraid to let Macbeth be really funny at times. Kate Fleetwood’s Lady Macbeth was terrifying, sexy and insane on a grand scale. And Goold had the Weird Sisters be homicidal nurses who made corpses in body bags wriggle to life as they rapped out the “Double, double toil and trouble” spell. So scary. And so cool.
Long story short, Rupert Goold has made a film of the production starring the original cast, and it will be airing on PBS on October 6th. I can’t think of a better Halloween treat than this. I’m so happy that I’ll be able to watch this amazing production again and again.
Watch a preview here.
Watch an interview with Patrick Stewart here.
Read the New York Times review here.
