Brave MacBeth

Aug 4 2014 | By More

✭✭✭✭✩  Foot-tapping treason

The Famous Spiegeltent (Venue 87) Sun 3 – Sun 25 August (not Mondays)

Something wicked this way comes to the Famous Spiegeltent in St Andrew Square this fringe. As part of their Did Not Deserve to Die series, Captivate Drama present the grisly Scottish Play.

Brave_MacBeth_LogoThe show, originally devised with Captivate Drama’s Saturday Youth Group, skilfully combines Shakespeare with a catchy musical score. It provides the perfect combination of comedy, action and storytelling to make it both accessible and engaging for children – while still being entertaining for the adults in the audience. It is a great piece of musical theatre for the whole family with a fantastic sense of energy throughout.

The talented cast, under Sally Lyall’s direction, successfully manage to bring the audience into the show, interacting with them, weaving in modern day references and using the occasional audience member as part of the set.

The witches, played by Sylvia Cowie, Rachael Crone and Meg Laird-Drummond are captivating to watch, with graceful, gliding movements that seem to epitomise the art of spell-casting, perfectly matched to the expectations and demographic of the audience.

“…a twinkle in her eye.”

Frankie O’Connor plays MacBeth, the tragic hero of the piece. While he is thoroughly entertaining, he personifies a ‘daft laddie’ character and fails to convey the drive and ambition of the character that leads to his downfall.

This instead is left to Rachael Coll who plays panto villain Lady MacBeth. She guides MacBeth to undertake his self-fulfilling prophecy – but it’s hard to hate her for it, especially when she so easily puts her husband in his place and does it with a twinkle in her eye.

Perhaps if MacBeth been allowed to perform his soliloquy (a running joke throughout the show) he would have been able to show his more complex nature.

It’s a tough job to try and effectively convey Shakespeare’s complex emotions for an audience of children. While Brave MacBeth doesn’t quite mesh this together perfectly every time, it does provide a clever and inventive way to introduce children to one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, and it’ll keep the parents laughing as it does so.

Running time: 1 hour
The Famous Spiegeltent, St Andrew Square, EH2 1AF (Venue 87)
Sun 3 – Sun 25 August (not Mondays)
Daily, 11.00.
Full details: edfringe.com/whats-on/brave-macbeth

ENDS

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