Macbeth w/ Ralph Fiennes & Indira Varma - Site Specific

Having had chance to chew over last night's viewing in Liverpool, there is quite a lot to unpack so I'll break this review down into different sections.

1. Venue

The location for the Liverpool leg of the tour wasn't the easiest to get to on public transport. I was coming to the show straight from work last night and the site (The Depot) isn't on any major bus route and requires a good 20 minute walk once you alight from the bus. The nearest train stations are a good 1-2 miles away. As the location is on an industrial park, arriving early before the venue opened, options for somewhere to eat/drink are very limited. The nearest place was a COSTA on a retail park 5 minutes from the venue. 

Ticket checks were very quick with the staff, though my rucksack wasn't searched going into the venue despite many security staff on the venue. Once you pass into the venue you are in a very large open plan foyer area. There was no seating available (people had to ask for it if needed) just a lot of tables. While we waited to enter the auditorium we had some jazz music playing over the speakers. There was also cast board available. There was a bar and looking at the prices, bring your credit card!

2. Merchandise

For those interested there wasn't anything available except a combined programme / brochure. These cost £8 each. It was filled with plenty of production shots, interviews and cast bio's. 

3. Auditorium 

This consist of 2 parts when you walk into it. The 1st part is the setting to give you a sense of a battlefield with burnt out wrecks and vegetation. It looked very impressive and you could take photo's if you wanted. The main auditorium had 3 sides of seating. I will say from my visit that the seating was VERY UNCOMFORTABLE. It was basically conference chair seating with very little padding. I was talking to a couple of people who had the same view and even the school / college kids sat behind me gave the seating the thumbs down. The raking was very good so people sat in front didn't block my view. 

My original ticket was for a 2nd preview sat right at the very back for £35 of the centre block of seatings. However, this show was cancelled and was moved to a different block (same price band) with an slightly diagonal view of the stage but was closer to the stage than my original ticket . I will say that it was an excellent view with nothing missed. The side seating looks to be ok as apart from a table at one side for some of Act 1, I wouldn't say you would get a bad view from any side

I didn't have any sound issues from my seat and the cast were perfectly audile for the entire show. 

I wouldn't say that the production is immersive as the stuff at the Bridge but the gangways and the front of the seating areas are used as an extension to the main stage.

4. The Show

From the notice on the merch booth, Act 1 was running at 70 minutes, Act 2 at 65 minutes and a 20 minute interval. With the show starting at 7.30pm, I was out of the venue by 10.20pm. 

The set is basically a large steel grey house set with 2 side balcony's. The set is then padded out with a few table and chairs when needed.

Done in modern dress, I will say that this is very much a traditional version of the play with no real gimmicks to it allowing the audience to fully engage with the text. I certainly felt that the more supernatural elements of the play (particularly the witches) gave way to the horror and corruption of war. The sound design from Chris Shutt and music from Asaf Zohar evokes the sense of modern day warfare with the occasional sense of supernatural from the witches scenes. The 3 ladies playing the witches look more like 3 students on a night out or at a music festival rather than anything more supernatural. The lighting design from Jai Morjaria also helps conjure up a more supernatural feel when needed (such as the appearance of Banquo's ghost.

As the murderous couple, Fiennes and Varma make a wonderful and watchable pairing with real on stage chemistry. Despite the dark tones on the play, these two are able to find some humour in the play with the Macbeth's relationship, particularly in the Banquet scene in Act 2.  Ben Turner as MacDuff is getting plenty of positive reviews in the press and certainly for me gives some scene-stealing performances in Act 2.

As a complete production I felt that Emily Burns adaptation certainly flowed well and was easy to follow with good pacing (thanks to director Simon Godwin) kept me entertained throughout. The school kids certainly seemed to enjoy seeing the show (though many were just happy to see Voldermort on stage). It didn't leave me scratching my head wondering what was going on at any point. Whilst I wouldn't consider this to be a classic, it was certainly a strong production and definitely worth the watch. 

Rating 4 stars.

If anyone is going to London or Edinburgh, could you please get me a programme? I can pay by PayPal or bank transfer.

Many thanks!

A week long extension, runs now until March 30th.

I completely agree with this. The seats aren't just conference chairs, they're all connected so if the person next to you crosses their legs, you feel the movement in your own seat. And if your ss isn't skinny, you may be bumping butts with the stranger in the next seat. Luckily, the young man next to me and I each had empty seats next to us, so were able to avoid that, for the most part. (Three empty seats in my row of 11 seats.)


Again, completely agree. This is the production that supplies the context (motives, emotions) that the David Tennant production lacks. Although I thought the witches could have included older women and dressed them as 'collateral damage' in a war.

Can I say I think Ralph Fiennes speaks Shakespeare so understandably (not rushing it and articulating every syllable) that it was a joy to listen to him. Many actors rush the words, and between that and the archaic language, it can be pretty hard to follow. This is a production that glories in (and glorifies) the words.

I'd forgotten how much alliteration is found in Shakespeare's writing, and Mr. Fiennes tended to emphasize that, along with hitting the consonants pretty strongly. His 'b's were particularly bulbous.

One thing to note in getting there, Google Maps has the venue in the wrong spot. When you exit the Canada Water station, set Decathlon as your destination (or look along the broad walkway next to the water. The venue is just beyond Decathlon. The venue is a white, two-story building lined with white lights.

And finding your seat is a bit confusing. Some folks were still wandering as the sound effects signaled that we were in a war zone. If you can't find your seat easily, ask one of the staff. (Probably not the 'soldiers' that are on and around the stage for atmosphere.)

As for seating location, I was in A144 (front row of the right-hand 'short' side). I felt that they played more to that side and the front and wondered if those on the left 'short' side felt distant from the action. There were a few scenes where furniture or people obscured my view (particularly in a scene between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth) but on the whole, it was fine. And in his last scene, Fiennes skidded his armor off the stage and into the feet of the gentleman next to me!

Finally, a note about the smoke effects. There is a LOT of smoke! I also heard a lot of coughing from the audience, which could be just winter, but seemed to correspond with the heavier smoke in certain scenes. The last scene really lays the smoke on heavily, almost obscuring the action.

Hated this. Absolutely bored to death; and the idea that this is in any way “site-specific” or “immersive” is nonsense. Just a really by the books, bog standard production, aesthetically incoherent and with ugly lighting. Left at the interval, so perhaps the second half was better, but I genuinely couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

I have a ticket for this on the noticeboard for tonight which is now free to a good home if anyone can make it!

I thought this was pretty underwhelming.

Ralph Fiennes does speak Shakespeare so beautifully but I didn’t get much from his performance really - was almost just like a read through of the play. I love Shakespeare and enjoy ‘straight’ versions of it, but this just seemed a bit lacking in depth and insight ( and consistency?). Perhaps I was expecting too much.

Agree with others Indira Varma was very good.

Wasn’t sure what the point was of it being in the site specific locations really, very uncomfortable and again not particularly imaginative use of the space. Perhaps these do attract a different audience in which case great and makes sense. I’d love to see some data on audiences and where these non traditional theatres do pull in new audiences.

Overall it was just OK. Possibly feel less generous to it as it’s a mighty trek for me to get there!

For me Varma was the only real positive. When I was there the audience were laughing at certain scenes and I swear Fiennes was playing along with them. Nor do I think just speaking clearly is necessarily a benefit to something like this. The problem with Macbeth is that actors seem to fail to get the motivation of the character (admittedly a bit tough given Shakespeare cobbled together different bits of history to pad out the second half). I never had a sense that Fiennes really captured that.

It is interesting to read the different takes. I saw both this and the Donmar and much preferred David Tennant’s Macbeth - he felt consistent and believable in his motivations and what drove him, which I didn’t get from Fiennes.

A decent version of Macbeth, but the seats are REALLY awful

The talk of uncomfortable seating worried me so I checked the seating plan to see if I am near the aisle (booked in June so memory foggy) and found my row doesn’t even exist any more. Checked and not had an email. Finally got in to the site and looks like my booking was changed in October. Phoned and eventually got through and they sent me a ticket! How kind!
Starting to dread my visit on saturday