At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Clive Anderson in his show "Macbeth and Me" asserted that it was the greatest of all Shakespeare's plays in terms of language and plot. The problem with that is that it is frequently done by professional companies and that inevitably invites comparison. Kenneth Branagh's traverse production in the Manchester International Festival a few years ago is my benchmark and this exciting production by Antic Disposition in the glorious setting of Temple Church matches up very well.
However it is the women who steal the show. The three "weird sisters" presence is elevated and when they are absent you miss them. Directors Ben Horslen and John Risebero double them up as servants in the Macbeth household and they frequently appear heads cast down, hands twisted as if in mid spell and observe, almost haunt, the action. When Duncan is murdered they collect the bloodied bed sheets and are later seen washing them in the famous " toil and trouble" scene . It is brilliant and you have a real sense of the Macbeth's being under some dreadful curse from the three witches (Louise Templeton, Bryony Tebbutt and Robyn Holdaway). They act in unison and magically lift a table as they cast their spells.
