Daniel Raggett’s audacious RSC production transforms Shakespeare’s tragedy into a Glaswegian pub thriller. The Other Place’s studio stage is fitted with bar stools, and the Macbeths run a drinking den populated by thugs. Duncan becomes a camel-coated drug kingpin, and the action unfolds largely unchanged despite the relocation.
The text adapts well to the setting: Banquo asks for a light and is tossed a disposable Bic; thugs wield flick knives but still call them “swords”. Banquo’s ghost ambushes a fish-and-chip wake for Duncan. Several minor characters are combined into a single Catholic priest, adding a layer of Celtic sectarianism, played with searing creepiness by Christopher Patrick Nolan.
The weird sisters are reimagined as tough, judgmental tipplers who turn the Hecate scenes into a seance during a lock-in. The staging is genuinely scary, played fast with alarming blackouts. Sam Heughan’s Macbeth achieves full tragic weight, with “Tomorrow and tomorrow” staged as a duet with a dead character. Lia Williams’ Lady Macbeth makes the verse vernacular, avoiding the stereotypical scold and clearly being the brains of the relationship. Her role is expanded through four additional silent scenes, animating the anguish of a woman who lost a child.
This production proves that there is still a new way of doing Macbeth. It is vintage scotch, not small beer.
