Review: Macbeth (The Other Place, RSC)

Review by Raphael Kohn

⭐️⭐️

‘I’ll have two pints and a packet of crisps’, said nobody ever in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. As far as I remember, anyway. They get awfully close, however, in the RSC’s latest production, reimagining Shakespeare’s tragedy as an interpersonal conflict set in a Glaswegian pub. At least, I think that’s what they’re going for. It gets a touch unclear, sometimes, to know for sure.

A fair amount seems to have been changed to make this new production work. Director Daniel Raggett (making a return to the RSC not long after his successful Edward II earlier this year) has gone high-concept with his ideas. Every scene is now set within the four walls of the pub and reimagines the characters as everyday folk, rather than the nobility. In doing so, a fair few characters get the chop and are divided up among the others. The ‘Porter’, previously a walk-on part for some Shakesperean stand-up to relieve tension after a dramatic moment gets a much-expanded role, taking on scenes from other characters and losing the famous comedy performance.

This, to an extent, helps to ground the modified plot in Raggett’s concept. Significantly rewritten, it carries a pacy energy throughout much of its first half as it whips through Shakespeare’s text. This sometimes falters, especially in the second half where things begin to drag, but it often plays to the production’s benefit. Otherwise, though, Raggett imbues the production with a particularly brutal flavour, enjoying the audience’s winces as characters are brutally murdered, or shockingly commit suicide, in full view of the audience. But unfortunately, the concept sometimes takes over, and it starts to clash with the text.

Macbeth seems to be sort of a bartender, sort of a landlord, and sort of a customer. It’s not clear; he pours drinks and clears tables, while also being part of the patrons. The text is unchanged in referring to him as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and finally the King of Scotland, but this doesn’t translate into much in the pub setting. Maybe he ascends the social hierarchy in his community, but that’s really the limit of the interpretation. Maybe that’s the point, and there’s not supposed to be much more of an interpretation to be found.

Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth is sidelined somewhat and mainly just there to encourage Macbeth’s ambitions, but without much of a regnal role lacks authority over the others. Again, this might have been the point all along, to simplify the politics and make each character more relatable, but I’m simply not sure it works in practice. The three witches work a little bit better in this setting, as outsiders in the corner of the pub who seem to see everything and say little, which adds some suspense and supernaturalism.

The titular pair are an unusual one. Outlander’s Sam Heughan makes his RSC debut as Macbeth, and brims with a suppressed and restrained intensity, opposite Lia Williams as Lady Macbeth. Unfortunately, neither quite feels on a solid footing. Heughan is physically imposing as Macbeth, but performs his most famous soliloquies with a slightly uncertain interpretation. Meanwhile, Williams’ performance is a uniquely understated one, at times rushing through her best lines without enough gravity. Between them, there’s an odd chemistry filled with distrust and uncertainty, but that works somewhat better and offers some explanation to their individual foibles.

Heughan’s Macbeth is appropriately shocked by Nicholas Karimi’s Banquo, an engaging side character up until his expected demise and spine-tinglingly menacing in the second act when returning as a ghost. Michael Abubakar takes on the role of the ‘porter’, absorbing many other characters in the process and throwing the comedy to the side, but does a fine job with turning it into a volatile and edgy soldier.

In keeping with the whole ‘pub’ concept that really does affect every aspect of this production, set designer Anna Reid transforms the RSC’s versatile studio in the round. Heralmost-immersive set plops some of the audience at bar seating and allows the actors to mingle their way through to the stage. It’s cool, no doubt, and looks impressive throughout. There’s an even more interesting idea, though, in Ryan Day’s lighting, attempting to light the entire show naturalistically with suspended balls of light above, LED strip lights on the bar, and moonlight-like beams piercing through spinning fans towards the stage.

Unfortunately, Day’s lighting doesn’t work as well in practice as it does in theory. For fleeting moments, it’s mightily impressive, but the end product of lengthy scenes being performed in near-darkness is a somewhat obvious fault; I simply couldn’t see the actors’ performances. I wish that didn’t seem so blunt, but it’s the case. In many key scenes and famous soliloquies, the actors find themselves wandering around as ‘moonlight’ glimmers from the opposite side of the stage and half-lights the ends of their hair. Their raw emotions and ambitious urges, however well performed they might be, become quite literally invisible. It’s a great idea, of course. It just doesn’t work.

It's hard to really ‘get’ Raggett’s interpretation this time around. Most likely, this is a case of me not quite gelling with the creative concepts here, and others will find it exhilarating. But for me, it seems to just be a reduction of Shakespeare’s high-stakes tragedy, from a tale of power and ambition at the highest level to a few people in a pub trying to be ‘top dog’. It’s boozy, it’s brutal, but at times, it’s baffling.

Macbeth plays at the RSC’s The Other Palace until 6^thDecember 2025. Tickets from https://www.rsc.org.uk/macbeth/

Photos by Helen Murray