Macbeth with Stephen Dillane - Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay - 17/02/06

Ethan Switch - Sunday, 19 February 2006 - Print Version

Round and round they roam the water's edge looking for a connection. In anime, the people rarely hold conversations on mobile phones. Crossing paths in the street all too coincidental, the chaotic fact of fate playing a large role. And that they are drawn together by the very virtue of their character.

Signs around The Rocks show no marker for the Sydney Theatre on Hickson Road. 47 on a red square, but nothing across the road. Guess.

Murmuring of the seats continues with an utmost sense of personal emergency and importance. Ramble of the rattle bubbling on with a bloated man farting from his mouth. Silence comes in a wave, the quiet creep leaving many faces dark and silent. Lights remain fairly bright, or is this a memory of a movie theatre from the afternoon?

Stephen Dillane, a lone figure out among a band of three musicians, takes leave of his chair on stage to sail. Over the grains of black sand, Dillane is the entire cast of William Shakespeare's play about a self-made king undone by greed and paranoia.

Feet sneak out constantly in the first two acts of Macbeth. Clomping over carpet that exists only on the outside of the doors. On and on, the interruptions continue, and without a single pause, Dillane carries on with a skill that blinds himself to otherwise distractions. They are the people who bleed at such pain.

Witches three, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, Macduff. The entire cast runs through and through and all over again. Keeping track is a task, especially with one man delivering the entirety of dialogue and soliloquies. Trips of the tongue, with a speech curl or an effeminate clasp of the torso among the many hints of character change. Hard times lie in absorbing Macbeth primarily in this strangely defiant format. Essence and examination of the downward spiral not entirely separate from the performance.

Ambient music and tonality of scenes superbly meet to create an aural connection of disconnection.

Watching one man perform the entire work of Macbeth is the pursuit of those with strong minds, iron will and sadomasochistic leanings. There can be no feint of heart in the audience. They are the ones who leave before their brains explode and implode.

Ethan Switch